Harry Potter and the Links of Magic
by We Are The Final Shadow
Summary: As his third year begins, Harry Potter comes into contact with strange abilities that transcend the usual limits of Wizarding Kind. He Takes on Lordships of three of the most reputable families in the world, while also dealing with marriage contracts, a scheming ministry and the 'escaped convict' Sirius Black. [Harry/Daphne/Tracey/Astoria/Tonks/Two Others] fic.
1. Leaving The Dursleys

HARRY POTTER AND THE LINK OF MAGIC

CHAPTER ONE: LEAVING THE DURSLEYS

If one asked thirteen year old Harry Potter the thing he hated the most about the summer, he would probably answer that the worst part was being forced to do the homework from his magical school in the dead of night, for fear that the Dursley's find out. On this current night, Harry was practicing the spell known as 'Lumos Maxima', causing an intense light to form beyond the ordinary Lumos.

On the nightstand beside Harry's bed, a photo sat containing his parents, James and Lily Potter, who were dancing around an abandoned street. Unbeknownst to Harry, in the office of Professor Dumbledore at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a very important meeting was taking place between said Professor Dumbledore, and Narcissa Malfoy.

"Lucius will support the Dark side, when Voldemort returns to power, you know that right?"

"I unfortunately have figured this my dear," Albus agreed, "It could be detrimental to Draco's well-being however, and he might end up in a situation that he's too young to handle, but more importantly than that. It would take away from his individuality, I believe he may be the first Malfoy not married into the name who doesn't have a natural prejudice towards anyone, he only does it to keep his father at bay."

"Then what can we do Albus? Especially with Sirius Black now on the loose? This situation seems to be pointing towards worsening days."

"The harsh truth Narcissa, is that Sirius Black is innocent, I tried to pull him free, but Fudge wouldn't let me, and being the Minister for Magic, he's got more authority then I do, but I'm going to do my best to capture the one who really did it."

"And what shall I do about Lucius?" Narcissa interjected, changing the subject once again, "I hardly want to be married to him…"

"I'm not sure…it's a difficult situation."

"Well, I'm sure Lily's turning in her grave at the place you chucked her son in, blood wards or not. You should've listened to McGonnagall Albus."

"I didn't realize what they were like until recently, but I'm making plans to have him out of there as soon as possible," Dumbledore continued, "But I can't do anything yet, until I organize a few things. Which means that Harry will have to stay put for the time being."

"I understand professor, well thank you for the conversation, and I shall assess my opinions…but I want to get Draco away from that man as soon as possible, as I'm sure you want to get Harry away from those atrocious Dursleys as soon as possible."

Dumbledore gave the woman a gentle nod, then the blond and black haired woman stood, turned on heel then departed from the scene. Albus looked over at the spinning dial that was Harry Potter's location device, still saying that he was at Number Four, Privet Drive.

"Soon Harry, Soon I will take you from that disastrous place and teach you about your real heritage, and I'm sure you're going to gain some powerful allies over the next few years."

Dumbledore stood from the seat behind his desk and moved to the window, he looked down over the grounds, and muttered softly, "Good luck, Harry Potter."

"BOY! YOU'D BETTER GET DOWN HERE!" Vernon boomed.

Harry sighed, just when he thought he was going to get a quiet morning for once, but unfortunately it seemed that it was only wishful thinking, there was no doubt in his mind that this was probably going to be a bad morning, Vernon had gone out to the pub like he usually did on Friday nights, and every Saturday, the hungover walrus would attack Harry out of spite.

"Yes, sir?" Harry said, hoping to keep him in a good mood.

But Vernon said nothing, he simply attempted to drive a fist into his face, as it approached his face, Harry vaguely compared it to a beefy club being swung at him, but that's when it happened. Vernon's fist had frozen mid-way towards Harry, and no matter how hard the Muggle tried, he couldn't make it budge.

"W…what the hell are you doing freak!?"

Harry didn't respond, he was too mystified by what has happening, then he tilted his head downward, Vernon flew transversely through the room and slammed straight into the pantry, causing him to collapse, and the splinters of wood to fall down on-top of him.

"H…how the hell?" Harry whispered to himself, then saw Petunia and Dudley closing in on him, Harry took a deep breath, trying to prepare himself for the punishment about to come, but when his breath had exhaled, he found that he was in his room!

He shifted his gaze around the room in utter bewilderment, how could this be happening, he was sure it wasn't apparation, because, well, he hadn't learned it yet, so then what was it. Pushing these thoughts aside for the time being Harry grabbed as much stuff as he could. The thirteen year old descended the stairwell again, grabbed his trunk from the cupboard under the stairs, then exited the house without looking back.

He was still livid, how could he have been left here, when they'd treated him this way? He didn't care right now, he wasn't even sure he wanted to go back to Wizarding World, but Harry knew that he loved the Wizarding World for the most part, and he needed to find out what these new abilities of his meant anyway.

Harry Potter continued sauntering down the road, alerted to his attention was a shaggy dog, shaded in a dark obsidian, the dog barked at Harry, the latter fell down to the ground in shock, because the bark of the dog had somehow summoned a huge vehicle to the sidewalk Harry had landed on.

The vehicle itself was a large, midnight blue, triple decker bus. It sort of looked wonky in Harry's humble opinion, which might've confirmed its magical origin. The doors of the bus opened, and a man stepped down the stairs, whom only looked about four to five years older than him.

"Welcome to The Knight Bus, my name is Stan Stunshpike and I will be your conductor for this evening," all of a sudden Stan noticed that Harry was laying on the ground, "Whatchu doin down there?"

"Fell over?"

"Whatchu Fell over for?"

"I didn't do it on purpose!"

"Alright, then, get in. Where you headed kid?"

"The Leaky Cauldron, that's in London."

"Alright, then, take a seat."

Harry plopped down into the closest bed, taking a seat and grabbing the frame of the bed.

Stan rapped his knuckles on the driver's compartment, "Take 'er away Ern!"

"Yeah, take her away Ern!" a shrunken head shouted hanging like an air freshener from the top window of the driver's compartment.

As the Knight Bus drove on, Harry noticed the front cover of the Daily Prophet, which Stan was reading, "Who is that? That man?"

"Him?" Stan said, indicating the man Harry had asked about, "That's Sirius Black that is, Don't tell me you haven't been hearing of Sirius Black," when Harry shook his head, Stan continued on, "He's a murderer, got himself locked up in Azkaban for it."

Harry went completely silent in response to that. He didn't anything he could say would make a difference. In around half an hour, the knight bus dropped Harry outside the Leaky Cauldron, he sauntered up to the front door, and opened it.

He was immediately noticed by the innkeeper, Tom. He grabbed Harry by the arm, and pulled him aside into the room currently occupied by a man, he had sandy blond hair, and was dressed in a rather posh looking suit, which looked more muggle than wizard.

"Welcome Harry," he said, "My name is Cornelius Fudge. The Minister of Magic."

"It's nice to meet you…" Harry said nervously, had they found out about his magic, even though he hadn't even used a wand?

Noticing Harry's fearful expression, Fudge smiled, "Don't look so scared Harry, the Ministry doesn't send people to Azkaban for self-defence, remember?"

Exhaling a sigh of relief, Harry then voiced another question, "Any other reason you wanted to talk to me, Minister?"

Fudge chuckled, "Not really Harry, you're safe, that's what matters. Oh, I also took the liberty of having your school books for the new term picked up."

"Thanks sir."

After the meeting with Fudge, Tom escorted Harry to his room. It was slightly bigger than his room at Privet Drive, and there was no Dursleys here, Harry resolved to go down into the Alley at some stage tomorrow but for now, he figured it was time for a good rest.

That burst of accidental magic, whatever it was in correlation to could be dealt with another time.

 _End chapter_

 _And so another journey begins! Please Read and Review, also, as always NO FLAMES! and another thing, this is going to be HarryxHarem, so if you want to see a specific girl in this harem please let me know._


	2. Discoveries

CHAPTER TWO: DISCOVERIES

Morning came too quickly for Harry Potter's liking, he'd enjoyed the first decent sleep in he'd had since being at school the previous year, a better realization came in the form of not having to prepare breakfast for the Dursleys. Harry let his gaze turn out the window, and he smiled softly in realization of this.

He pulled himself out of bed, then sauntered over to his trunk and pulled out some clothes for the day. Something had been playing at his mind for the previous night. The mysterious power he'd displayed against his uncle was definitely something and he knew that he'd have to get to the bottom of this before long, unless he did unintentional damage to anyone when he became fuelled by a strong emotion of some kind.

Harry left his room at the Leaky Cauldron, the first thing he noticed when he stepped outside the room was several wanted posters of the criminal that Stan Stunshpike had warned him about while he was riding aboard the Knight Bus, Sirius Black. Shrugging off the feeling of dread the man gave him Harry turned toward the stairwell, and descended into the bustling dining area slash lobby of the Leaky Cauldron.

After a quick breakfast of bacon and eggs with toast, Harry exited the inn, and moved to the back of it, which simply looked like the garbage disposal area. He extracted his wand from the inside of his pocket and tapped it against the bricks in the sequence that he'd vaguely remembered Hagrid using in his first year. The bricks clicked and shifted into position, opening up the way into Diagon Alley.

Smiling slightly at the familiarity of the alley, and more so the fact he was actually back in the Wizarding World, Harry began his way down the high street, and turned his eyes around the different shops and things, looking around all the different displays.

"Harry!"

The obsidian haired teen whipped his head in the direction of the yell, and grinned broadly when he saw who was behind the yell, definitely someone he'd not been expecting to see until he was at Hogwarts, "Hey Neville, how've you been?"

"Loads better thanks," He smiled, "How about yourself?"

"Same in that regard, you doing school shopping?"

"Yeah, you?"

"Little bit," he nodded, "Mainly a bit of exploring since I've already done mine."

"Well, I'll go back to it, and see you at school."

"You too Neville."

After visiting with his friend, Harry continued down the street, he was unsure of what he wanted to do, since the ministry had already done his school shopping for him. Deciding that he'd be better to go to Gringotts first, and get some money first, Harry passed through the crowds of witches and wizards with a purpose, when Harry made it to Gringotts he exhaled a sigh of relief in the face that he'd managed to get all this way without being trampled.

"The alley's definitely busy," he muttered to himself, then pushed the door to the Wizarding Bank open. Remembering another thing Hagrid had told him at the beginning of his first trip here, Harry walked straight to the front desk with his head held high, however, he didn't make any direct eye contact with any of the goblins.

"Who goes there?" said the goblin behind the front desk.

"Harry Potter, I wish to withdraw some funds from my account."

"And does Harry Potter have his key?"

"Sure do," Harry said , holding up the little golden key to the goblin.

"Very well, I'll have someone take you down to your vault."

-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx-

After visiting Gringotts, and collecting his money, Harry travelled to the Magical Menagerie, to get a few bags of owl treats for Hedwig, normally he would've gone to Eeyelops but Hedwig preferred the type that was sold here.

Harry was about to ask for the clerk, but he had to duck his head to avoid a stray ball of fire coming from the far corner of the store, he turned just in time to see a huge white tiger with sapphire flames raising from its back, and glowing blue eyes, before it shifted back into a regular tabby cat.

"Midnight, calm down!" the clerk begged.

The tabby, seemingly named Midnight sauntered over to where Harry was standing, and affectionately nuzzled into his leg, as if apologizing for throwing a fireball his way.

"Wow, I've never seen Midnight do that with, well, anyone before."

"What type of creature is he?" Harry asked kneeling down and scratching Midnight behind the ears, the tabby seemed to curl into Harry's hand, and to say the clerk was flabbergasted, would be an understatement.

"An Elemental Weretiger," she responded faintly, "If you're interested, you may have him for free, because I doubt he'd listen to anyone else, and besides that he seems to like you a great deal."

"I'll take him," Harry said brightly, he knew having two pets would be a big responsibility, but he could just see the Dursley's faces when they came across Midnight's other form. Harry lifted the tabby into his arms, "How much is it for the traveling pack and all that?"

"Complimentary, I'm just glad to have the disastrous thing off my hands."

The clerk sent Harry out of the shop with a new traveling pet cage, a few bags of catfood suitable for a weretiger, and of course the treats for Hedwig that he'd originally entered that shop for. By the time Harry was out on the street again, Midnight was comfortably sitting on his shoulder, and surprisingly, Harry didn't mind, it actually felt surprisingly right to have the cat sitting there.

Harry spent the rest of the day looking around the different displays of the alley, he'd also bought a few more things for himself as well, when he returned to the Leaky Cauldron late in the afternoon, his pockets felt considerably lighter than they had when he first left Gringotts. Harry had a new challenge, introducing his two pets to each other.

Harry walked into his room, and immediately Midnight leapt off his shoulder, jumping straight onto the bed and peering curiously over at the snowy owl, which of course, was Hedwig. Harry nervously opened her cage, expecting the worst. However, when introduced to each other the two animals merely nuzzled against each other, Hedwig hooted softly to Harry and affectionately nipped his finger as if to say, "I'll be back later," then she flew out the open window.

Harry plopped down onto his bed, immediately Midnight curled up on his lap, and Harry began to pet the creature behind his ears once more, Harry was smiling softly, today had been an interesting day to say the least.

-x-

"Lucius," Narcissa began with a clear look of disgust on her face.

"What's that boy done this time!?"

"It's not the boy that's the problem Lucius, I'm filing for divorce, as is legal under the betrothal and marriage contracts liaison office, est. eighteen thirty two."

"W..what?"

"You abused our son, and attempt to control me by threatening him, I cannot allow this to stand."

"I'll make you suffer, bitch!" Lucius roared, pulling his wand free from his cane.

However, at the last moment, Lucius' wand flew out of his hand, and soared into the outstretched one of an unrecognizable figure, "I'd suggest you not do that."

"Y…You..but you're his most trusted advisor!"

"This isn't about the Dark Lord, Lucius, I'm strongly against child abuse, since I was a fellow sufferer, I can understand Draco's position, you don't deserve either her, or Draco in your life."

"Get out of my house all of you, and take that useless brat with you!"

Severus nodded to Narcissa, and together the two began to pack several things around the place. The Potions Master of Hogwarts then ascended into Draco's room and knocked at the door, "Draco, it's time to go."

Inside the room, the thirteen year old Draco Malfoy turned towards the sound of his godfather's voice, he got to his feet, then quickly collected the bag his mother had told him to pack, then sauntered over to the door, and opened it.

"Where're we going?" he asked.

"I'm taking you to stay at the Leaky Cauldron, until the school term begins, while your mother organizes where you'll be staying for a more permanent fixture, have you got everything?"

Draco only nodded.

"Very Well, take my arm."

As soon as Draco had clutched his godfather's arm they whipped out of sight, Draco would've found the sensation odd, but he'd grown use to it after the times he'd been side-along with a few people.

"Mr. Malfoy wishes to be shown to his room, I assume you've already put his belongings away?"

"I have," Tom nodded.

"Good, I must make my departure, but make sure that he is comfortable for his duration here."

"I will, Severus."

"Good."

Without another word, the Potions Master of Hogwarts turned on heel, then apparated out of the room once again. Draco was so lost in thought, with everything going on in correlation to what was going on with his parents that Tom literally had to tug him towards his room.

About halfway there, Draco got sight of the last person he wanted to see right now.

"Potter?"

"Malfoy?"

 ** _END CHAPTER_**

 ** _Now, I know the length is a slight amount shorter than what I usually write, and I promise that the next one will be longer, I just wanted to establish the divorce early and get everything rolling XD consider this a filler chapter of sorts. Please Read and Review, but no Flames! don't like, don't read. Awesome at the harem ideas, will consider those and keep suggestions for that coming!_**

 ** _Also bonus points to anyone who can help me with other ideas. I'm looking for somewhat of an ideas consultant for this story, so let me know if you'd be interested!_**


	3. Friends and Enemies

CHAPTER THREE: FRIENDS AND ENEMIES, OR IS THAT ENEMIES AND FRIENDS?

"What're you doing here?" Draco shot at Harry angrily, as long as the two had known each other, Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy had disliked each other, the animosity stemmed from Ron being bullied by Draco, insinuating that the blond boy was better than the boy's family merely because his family had a lot of money and Ron's didn't.

"I could ask you the same thing," Harry shot back angrily, his emerald green eyes narrowed with hatred. If one was to pass by this area in this moment they'd be easily to cut the tension with a knife, the boys were glaring at each other and everything else seemed to fade from their attention.

Without thinking Draco pulled his wand free from his pocket, and aimed it straight at Harry's face, "I'm not in the attention of Muggles now, and with all the wizards in this place, the ministry would never be able to pin me for this, especially since there's no witnesses, hopefully you enjoy being a vegetable, Potter."

His body must've felt that he was under threat, for in the next moment, golden energy had poured out of Harry, forming some kind of forcefield around him, and from the way that the Malfoy boy looked at the sight of it, Harry had to guess that the energy was practically impenetrable.

"So, you do have a few party tricks," Draco sneered, "Watch your back Potter, because you won't be able to hold that shield up twenty four hours a day, seven days a week."

Draco re-pocketed his wand, then turned on heel, and stalked straight out of the hallway, heading for the staircase that headed towards the lower levels of the Leaky Cauldron.

Harry exhaled the breath he was holding, and the golden energy receded into his body, and Harry had to clutch the nearest post for support, Draco was right about one thing, he wasn't capable of holding this energy of his yet, and furthermore, he didn't even know what it was to practice. Maybe he'd ask Hermione about it when he saw her, she seemed to know a lot from the books she read, and if anyone knew what this power was, it'd be her.

Midnight nuzzled into Harry's cheek from his seat on the thirteen year old's shoulder, and he stroked the Tabby underneath his chin, "Don't worry about him Midnight, I'm just glad you trusted my energy enough to not transform into your other form."

The tabby seemed to understand this, for a moment later, he licked his master's cheek affectionately.

Chuckling to himself, Harry also headed down into the lower parts of the Leaky Cauldron.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

"Harry!" Ron exclaimed when he caught side of the raven-haired boy descending the staircase, we heard that you were here, but Tom said you were sleeping."

"Ron! Hermione!" Harry grinned, sauntering over to where his friend was seated, then took a seat in between him, and Hermione, "How's your summer been, both of you?"

"France was rather interesting," Hermione began, "And I got to see so much magical history there, it was incredible!"

Ron rolled his eyes, "Trust her to use it as a book reference gathering, Egypt was brilliant though, and the tombs were pretty decent, Mum wouldn't let Ginny in the last one though."

"How about you?" Hermione asked, noting the strange cat rested on her friend's shoulder, "It seems you've made a friend in the least."

"Oh, guys this is Midnight. The Magical Menagerie gave him to me, the clerk said that Midnight never listened to anyone else other than me, when I went there to get Hedwig's favourite owl treats."

"Are you aware that it's a…"

"A Weretiger yeah," Harry confirmed, "I saw him transform the day we met."

"Just..keep it away from Scabbers, Harry," Ron advised him, "He's been looking off-colour lately, and I'm worried about him."

"Of course, Ron. I'll do my best to make sure that Midnight leaves Scabbers alone."

"Thanks mate," Ron smiled then narrowed his eyes, "Oh, just to let you know, that git Malfoy's here."

"I know," Harry whispered back darkly, "He tried cursing me earlier, but some kind of magical light erupted from my body and shielded me from whatever attack he was about to make."

"Magical Light?" Hermione asked, "Harry what did…what did this light look like?"

"It was golden, flecked with sparks of lightning," he admitted, "And the more focused I got, the bigger the sphere of energy seemed to get, why's that?"

Ron quickly turned his head from left to right, to ensure that no one was listening in, then spoke up, "That's a little odd, considering that I had a similar thing happen to me, except that energy you just said was gold when you'd used it…I fell off my broom about three weeks ago while we were playing in the orchard…I should've been made into a flobberworm, but this energy escaped my body, It was like pale blue, and it made me levitate just before I hit the ground…"

"Weird," Harry agreed, then turned to Hermione hopefully, "Any idea what this means?"

The studious witch-in-training only shook her head, "I'm sorry Harry, I really am, but through everything I've read, there's never been a reference to anything like this happening before."

Harry sighed softly, deep down he'd known the possibility of that being the case, but he couldn't fault Hermione for the one time that she hadn't read something that could be vital information. Every other time she'd always come through.

"But maybe I'll find something, I'll let you know if I do, alright?"

"Sounds good," Harry agreed, "I think that both of us could use the help."

"I think I agree with you both for once," Ron chuckled, looking nervously over to where Draco Malfoy was seated, he was staring blankly into the distance, but the youngest Weasley male still expected him to do something.

"Don't pay any mind to him Ron," Hermione told him, when she noticed where his attention was located, "He wouldn't do anything in such an open area, even more evidence to this is that daddy's not here to rescue him should he get into trouble."

Ron nodded silently, but still his eyes occasionally drifted over, just to make sure that the Malfoy boy was remaining quietly.

Harry, on the other hand, was looking out the window in a similar fashion to Draco, trying to piece together what this strange energy that kept protecting him from danger was…it was slightly unnerving, and it depleted his energy quite considerably every time that he used it, even unconsciously.

Suddenly Harry's attention was jolted away from his thoughts, a rustling noise was heard behind the trio, and the young male's eyes snapped towards the direction of the sound.

"Sorry for the scare," the first of a pair of red haired teens smirked in their direction, he was completely identical to the boy standing slightly behind him, and the two identical smirks proved that they had been playing another one of their jokes.

"Fred, George," Harry smiled, "It's good to see you two haven't changed."

"And we never will," the second boy, who Harry guessed was George, but he wasn't sure, you could never be one hundred percent certain with those two.

Midnight's eyes were glowing, and he hissed at the Weasley twins, clearly the cat had been less than impressed with their sudden display.

"Sorry," Harry quickly apologized, but his new companion merely gave a cat version of a huff, then jumped off his master's shoulder and stalked off, looking for something to do.

Ron smirked, "I think your new friend just gave you the cold shoulder, mate."

"I'd have to agree with you," Harry said, then turned back to Fred and George, "Thanks, guys."

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

"How did the drop off go?" Narcissa asked Severus quietly, she was worried about her son, as any mother would've been in this situation.

"Draco seemed fine," the Potions master responded, "I think you shouldn't worry about him too much, as difficult as it must be, until we've finalized everything in this situation."

"I've been worried about him ever since his powers surfaced, he's linked to the prophecy, and we can't even tell him because of Dumbledore's words."

"As much as I would also like to tell him, the boy is only thirteen years old Narcissa," Severus interjected, "And despite his faults, Dumbledore is right in saying that himself, Potter, and that Weasley boy are too young to deal the weight of the Prophecy at their age."

"Only time will tell how much longer he plans on keeping it concealed from them, then, a matter of time…"

"It has to be at the crucial moment, but not too much further down the line, or else we won't be able to prepare them for the years ahead, Dumbledore and I are planning to tell them at the end of this year at the earliest, because the three boys who are meant to save us all, right now they all hate each other with the passion."

"So, what you're saying is…?"

"Once the news of your divorce with Lucius goes public, and you and your son's stance in all of this is no doubt publically revealed, then maybe Draco, Potter, and Weasley will be able to build bridges."

"And will you help them?"

"I'll do everything in my power to ensure that they're ready when the time comes, I'm sick of being a spy for someone who isn't in any condition to fight, and let's be honest here, with my best friend ousting herself from the Dark Lord, someone's going to have to protect her aren't they?"

"He won't be pleased when he returns, Severus."

"That he won't, but let's just make sure our best shot at toppling him is ready when the time comes."

"I won't let them be anything less than prepared, even if I must train them myself."

"Narcissa, I don't think that'd be necessary, when they get trained, those boys will need someone who fully understands who and what they are, which is neither you nor is it even myself."

Narcissa sighed at Severus' statement, despite the fact she knew just how true it was, "And who do you propose will train them, then?"

"An old friend of Albus' and mine, someone who's believed to be dead, and the man who is the only one with the same abilities as those three boys."

"Surely you don't mean?"

"Unfortunately, yes, there's no one who understands the links of magic better than he does."

"Is there even a name for what he, and the boys are?"

"The magic link users have several different names throughout history, and many knowledgeable and powerful men and women have wielded the energy," Severus divulged, "Mostly though, they are referred to as Origin Mages, a common name for them, but I truly don't know the species' true name, because these magic users predated wizards and witches, who are descendent of what the boys are."

"Mages? I think they're a bit more powerful than that, to be honest, Severus," Narcissa sighed, "Then, after we sort this mess with Lucius out, I suppose you'll be leaving to contact this old friend?"

"I will be, and then hopefully I can convince him to come out of hiding, and train the boys to use their powers."

"Let's hope that you're successful Severus, there's not much else that we can do to prepare them for what's to come."

"And what will you do when these things are done?"

"I'm going to work on clearing my cousin's name, I believe it's far time that Harry actually met his godfather, and besides that, as much as you dislike him, Sirius would be a powerful ally."

Severus nodded, then looked towards her, "Then what else needs to be done before we can move onto our next tasks?"

"Just tidying up the house I got the other day, which I can do myself Severus," Narcissa told him, "You'd better go and get to convincing this friend of yours, and I'd like it if he was ready to train the boys as soon as this year passes."

Severus inclined his head politely, "Very well, I shall make haste, good luck with finding a way to clear Sirius, I'll be in touch."

"As will I, good luck Severus."

He nodded one more time, then was gone with a swish of his cloak.

 _ **END CHAPTER**_

 _ **WELL ANOTHER ONE DONE AND DUSTED, MORE OF WHAT HARRY, RON AND DRACO'S DESTINY IS HAS COME TO LIGHT, AND HOW IS MIDNIGHT INVOLVED IN THE GRANDER SCHEMES OF THINGS? WHAT ARE ORIGIN MAGES? WHAT ARE THE LINKS OF MAGIC THAT SEVERUS REFERRED TO? AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, WHO IS THIS STRANGE FIGURE THAT THE POTIONS MASTER SEEKS TO FIND WHO SHARES THE POWERS OF THE TEENS?**_

 _ **KEEP SENDING YOUR IDEAS FOR THE HAREMS IN! I NEED ONE FOR EACH OF THE ORIGIN TRIO.**_


	4. The Circle

**_Lumos!_**

 ** _It's been a while, but I've decided it far time that I continue this story, ladies and gentlemen it's time for part four of Harry Potter and The Links of Magic._**

 ** _DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER, I'M JUST PLAYING IN THE SANDBOX._**

Chapter Four: The Circle

"Well, looks like we're almost going back to Hogwarts for the year Hedwig."

A soft hoot sounded throughout the room, alerting Harry to the fact that his second friend in the entire wizarding world was almost as excited about the beginning of term as he was, but he knew what his owl's excitement was truly about, while Harry was at Hogwarts, Hedwig would have the freedom to fly wherever she wanted.

Harry was suddenly alerted to the presence of his other familiar, Midnight who was snoozing lightly at the end of Harry's bed. The young man reached over and began to softly stroke the kitten behind his ears.

"All this weird stuff that's going on…I wonder what it all means," Harry mused aloud while continuing to pet Midnight, "I hope that Hermione finds something, Midnight."

A soft purr came from the beast, " _I'm sure she will Harry, she's never let you down before."_

Harry jumped back from the weretiger curled up on the end of his bed and managed to stammer out, "You..You just?"

 _"Talked? Yes, it is not uncommon for my species to gain a telepathic link with the one they see as their true bonded wizard or witch."_

"You…"

" _Yes Harry, you are truly deserving of this. Otherwise it wouldn't have formed."_

"I…I see…"

The strange creature continued its soft purring, trying to reassure his master that little bit extra. Midnight knew a little bit more than he was letting on but retained the importance of allowing his master to figure things out.

' _Strict rules,'_ Midnight muttered darkly, " _I hate that about my kind sometimes."_

"What you mean?" Harry asked curiously.

" _Forget I said anything, it's worth more than my life to keep this secret from you for the time being. I apologize."_

"It's fine," Harry said with a shrug, "Living with the Dursley's has given me more than acceptance of people keeping secrets from me and I know that, unlike them, you aren't keeping them from for a reason that's in your control."

" _It surprises me that one so young is so understanding of a plight not understood by many adult humans whether they be mortal or wizard."_

"Is there anything you _can_ tell me?"

Midnight paused, his bright eyes seemed contemplative, as if he regarded if he might be able to give his new bonded at least a little bit of information into the future, knowing that his knowledge was just as important as either physical or magical skill.

" _Granted it won't be much…but I can tell you that the Mages of The Circle are often heralded as some of the most powerful magic users throughout the years, some even call them Origin Mages."_

Harry's eyes widened, that was enough to give Hermione for her at least to get a head start on her research.

"Thanks Midnight," Harry rushed out from the room, running along the old, almost decrepit hallways of the leaky cauldron. The walls were adorned with strange photographs, the pain in them was beginning to fade, some of the images within the frame caused to feel sick because of their decaying imagery. Unfortunately, it seemed that these paintings had been created before a magical solution to the problem was found. Harry continued down the hallway at a sprint, desperately throwing his eyes in all sorts of directions trying to locate Hermione if he potentially could. All of a sudden Harry heard a second voice enter his mind, " _Harry? It's Midnight. You'll find Hermione downstairs eating breakfast with the Weasley Family_."

"You can locate people too?"

" _Only the ones directly sought by my master within close proximity,"_ Midnight explained, " _But we can talk more about those things at another time, for the present it is important that you go and give Hermione the information that you have found."_

 _'D'you think I should tell them about the fact that you and I can talk through a familiar bond?"_

 _"It would perhaps be unwise to mention such around Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, after the fiasco with Ms. Weasley during the Chamber of Secrets last year…I cannot blame them for being suspicious of any magical creature that is more powerful than a mere house-cat. This should remain between us until we get to Hogwarts."_

' _Wait…How do you know about what happened in The Chamber of Secrets last year?"_

 _"Our familiar bond allows for me to view important things from your past so that I can determine whether or not you are worthy of being bonded to a Αλεξιπτωτιστής."_

 _'What's that last word?"_

 _"_ _Αλεξιπτωτιστής_ _, It's an old word from ancient Greece which means Lightning Rider."_ _"_ _You ride the lightning?"_ _"_ _Not me specifically no. It's just that fire forms as a_ _Αλεξιπτωτιστής_ _'_ _s basic element and then Lightning is the evolved derivative of those powers which is what gets us our name."_ Harry decided that it would definitely be a good thing to try and read up more about the Αλεξιπτωτιστής and potentially discover more hidden secrets and abilities that a familiar bond between the two would allow. In earlier weeks before he'd escaped from Privet Drive, Harry had resolved that he would not be slacking off with his school work to fall into the behaviour he'd fallen into whilst attending Muggle Primary Schooling with Dudley. There he'd purposely lower his grades so that he didn't do better than Dudley had lest he face the indominable wrath of Uncle Vernon.

It'd continued to plague Harry through the entirety of his first year and almost the full-length of his second year. He was determined not to make the same mistake a third time. After a discussion at length with Ron, the two of them had decided that ultimately Divination was not going to be fun for either of them, Ron having explained that Divination wasn't something that could be taught, you either had the ability or you didn't. As elated as Harry and Ron might've been to have a class where they couldn't do anything, the both of them felt they could do better than wasting both of their time sitting around when they could actually better themselves.

The youngest male Weasley had also mentioned on more than one occasion that his eldest brother worked as a Curse Breaker for Gringotts. This gave them both the incentive to sign up for Ancient Runes instead. Hermione herself had been surprised at the sudden switch for the boys' elective classes, but as Harry had said, things change when you go into a situation like the one that he and Ron endured through the Chamber incident. "Hermione!" "Good morning Harry, what's got you all excitable?" The bushy-haired girl was more curious than she let on, but definitely willing to give him the chance to catch his breath and at least explain what was going on. Harry suddenly remembered that he wasn't supposed to talk about any of Midnight's abilities with either Ron or Hermione until they at least got to Hogwarts. All around the table the huge family was giving Harry either concerned or mystified looks. "It's fine," he told them all, "I just needed help with some summer homework."

The Weasleys seemed to accept that, so Harry pulled both of his best-friends aside and spoke in an incredibly hushed voice, "I know what the name of the wizards and/or witches who use the same kind of magic that I did." "Harry that's brilliant!" Hermione said, overcome with relief, "At least that will give me a starting point to go from, what are they?" "Origin, well Origin Mages to be specific, but I hope that is enough to at least start you off." "Origin Mages? I think I read about them somewhere whilst we were at Hogwarts last year. Once we get back to School, I'll see what I can dig up. Ron you said you displayed the same abilities as Harry earlier in the summer? What exactly happened? I just need a better picture to see where this search could lead me.

" "Well," Ron began in a quiet voice, "It all started right before we entered the last tomb." _"_ _Oh mum, please let me go inside!"_ _"_ _I'm sorry Ginny, but you aren't quite old enough for this one yet."_ _Ron looked directly at the entrance to the Pyramid, a look of determination in his eyes. He definitely wasn't going to be left behind for this, even if his mother didn't want Ginny going inside the Pyramid…Ron himself wasn't going to take no for an answer, he wanted to prove that he could do it._

 _"_ _Alright, so Ginny and Mum are out, who's in then?"_ _"_ _I am," Fred and George said in perfect sync, no hesitation in their voices whatsoever._ _"_ _I want to learn more about ancient Egypt, so I shall also be accompanying you," Percy added._ _"_ _I'm coming too," Ron said determinedly, as if daring someone to question his desire to enter the Pyramid._ _In the next few minutes the four brothers entered the temple, Percy quickly decided that he didn't want to have anything to do with this pyramid all of a sudden, then quickly retreated to the outside world to remain with his parents and younger sister. Fred and George were next to cave, but Ron never gave in, walking alongside his eldest brother, Bill, Ron headed to the very centre of the Pyramid. Right as they were about to take the final step A loud rupturing sound ripped throughout the underground temple. Ron's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates, but somehow, he managed to keep his composure. The strange creature had climbed from inside one of the caverns down here and was prepared to attack both Ron and Bill to find freedom in the outside world._

 _It was in that very moment which the youngest Weasley male felt an odd tugging sensation within his stomach, against his better judgement, Ron slowly raised his hand into a position which had him aiming his hand directly at the creature right as Bill yelled, "Ron, get away from it! That thing is a Class A Dark Creature!"_ _The creature slowly extended its tentacle, preparing to ensnare the young Weasley, who merely tugged on the strange feeling budding in his stomach with his magic, the result was a huge blast of sapphire light whirling into the shape of a sphere around Ron's body, shielding both him and his eldest brother from the strange being of darkness._ _"_ _We have to get out of here," Bill told his youngest brother._ _"_ _How many levels down are we?"_

 _"_ _Roughly nineteen, it would take us half an hour to reach the top and I'd rather not lead the beast straight to the outside world if I could avoid it."_ _Nodding some, Ron placed his hand on Bill's shoulder and slowly but surely the strange Sphere lifted them right onto the entrance floor of the Pyramid, just out of sight of the rest of their family._ _"_ _Don't worry Ron," Bill said before his youngest brother could answer, "Your secret is safe with me."_ "So, that was another situation in which you were forced through dire circumstances and this magic within you activated? I mean, it sounds somewhat like accidental magic, but the force behind the powers you use are at a level that most fully-grown wizards can't conjure even consciously, I'll need time to do my research, but I promise you that we will find the answers and solve this puzzle even if it takes me all year."

x-x-x-x

Severus Snape entered the strange village, it was a quarter to eleven in the morning and the sun hadn't even come up yet, at least not to Severus' knowledge. He remembered coming here as a boy several times a year because of the horrible things that his father had put him through once he discovered that like his mother, Severus had come to inherit the ability to wield magic. The dark-haired, bat-like man approached the front door-step of the house at the very end of the street, raised a pale hand to the surface of the door and rapped at it roughly, "I've come back," he said in a somewhat raspy voice, and for several long moments the door remained unopen as if no one was even here in the first place. The Potions Master exhaled a small sigh then spoke once more, "It's about the Origin Mages." Severus waited a few moments and was almost prepared to turn around and walk back the way he came, but as he took the first movement to do so, the polished oak door slowly swung open.

 ** _End Chapter_** **_Well, I'm happy that this story is on the move again._** **_Please Read and Review. Flames will be ignored though._** **_Also, if anyone wants to discuss my plans for the future of this, give me some ideas or just talk, my inbox is always open to that end. Well, that's it from me. I hope you guys enjoy the rest of your week._** **_Nox!_**


	5. The Master of Origin

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything relating to it. I'm just playing in the sandbox.**_

Chapter Five: The Master of Origin

"You have some gall coming here," the male spoke, bright blue eyes glared across at Severus beneath the hood the man was using to conceal his identity, "I told you and Albus that my time interfering with the affairs of the Wizarding World are over."

"I'm not looking to involve you, at least not directly."

This seemed to pique the man's interest, but he merely turned on heel, walking deeper into the house, "Follow me, Severus."

The Potions Master of Hogwarts followed the other deeper into the house, his curiosity not going unnoticed.

"How is it that I'm going to be involved exactly?"

"Three new origin mages have been discovered."

This made him completely halt in his tracks, "three new origin mages? There haven't been any new ones since I first discovered my own abilities all those years ago."

"What I'm more interested in is why Headmaster Dumbledore told everyone that you were dead…it seems those rumours have been greatly exaggerated, Mr. Flamel."

"I tried crossing over with Penny," Nick admitted, "But she told me that there were still some things for me to do and she could not in good conscience allow me to join her in the next world until I'd accomplished all my tasks in this one. I suppose this is the event that my wife had been referring to when we last spoke."

"How…?"

"How have I not died yet?"

Unable to speak, Severus just nodded, he was more than curious about the method that Nicholas had used to stay in the world of the living once he'd run out of the elixir of life.

"Well, it seemed that my Origin had memorised the effects of the elixir and replicated the sensation into my very cells, essentially I could live forever if I chose to, but that is not my desire. I will do as Perenelle believes I should, then I shall join her in the next world. Who are they? The new origin mages?"

"There are three. Harry James Potter, the boy who lived and he was also the one responsible for making sure that Voldemort never got his hands on the Philosopher's Stone. His best-friend Ronald Weasley also instrumental in such an endeavour also is one and the final of the Malfoy line is too."

"Potter, Weasley and Malfoy? An interesting combination and an unlikely one at that if their family histories are anything to go by."

"Fate doesn't always present itself in the most expected of ways."

"Of course, it wouldn't be fate if we saw it coming all the time, so I'm assuming this to mean that you want me to be the one that trains the three of them to use their origin abilities then?"

Severus gave the older male a nod, "Not at least until the end of the year, I feel that it's best for them to get acquainted and actually co-exist without trying to kill each other before we try to make any sort of move into getting the three of them training into the depth of their hidden abilities."

"Is it wise to wait that long, Severus?"

"It has to be done," the potions master answered, "If we do this before that point we could be hindering them rather than giving them the help that they need. It's imperative that we do this right lest we run the risk of causing more damage than necessary. Trying to force those three into anything never ends well, trust me I speak from experience having taught them for two years at Hogwarts."

"Very well, Severus…do you know the prophecy in which these three are involved? I remember hearing Penny mention one, but she never gave me specifics."

"As it so happens I do," Severus took a deep breath, as if preparing himself to reveal the information laid out in his mind, " _Darkness and Light, Joining together to accomplish what can only be done in a hero's light. One born of Lightning, Marked by the bolt. One born of fire, marked by the head. One born of water marked by the soul. The Ancient Origin shall rise once more under a new Circle. The Lord of Darkness shall come and wreak his wrath upon the earth, the links of magic shall combine lest the world perish into the shadows."_

"That was an actual prophecy? Doesn't seem like one…"

"I only remember it vaguely," Severus divulged, raking a hand through his long, dark hair.

"I think I have a way in which that you can help those three…Is there something that you could do to improve their relationship…at least in the classroom?"

"Well, I tend to favour the Slytherins…Maybe if I be more open-ended?"

"No, everyone would sense dodgy…perhaps just those three."

"Wouldn't that just be construed as favouritism? I don't want to create more problems for Potter and Weasley than I must. This act of pretending to be in the Dark Lord's corner is absolutely aggravating."

"You've done what you had to," Nick reassured his old friend, "Don't worry I'll step in to train the three of them when the time comes."

x-x-x-x

 _ **Harry James Potter**_

 _ **I know that it is very close to the school term, but do you think that we could possibly bother you to come in for an appointment regarding your status within the Emrys, Peverell and Potter bloodlines? Please come to Gringotts at your earliest convenience, preferably before your term at Hogwarts begins.**_

 _ **Yours Sincerely,**_

 _ **Senior/Ancient Accounts Manager,**_

 _ **Graplock**_

"Who's that letter from?" Ron asked his best-friend whilst he sauntered over to the table at the bottom end of the dining area of the Leaky Cauldron.

"Gringotts, apparently I'm descendant from…" Harry looked around to make sure that no one else was listening, "Emrys, Peverell and Potter…the last one we already knew."

"Emrys? Peverell?" Ron looked absolutely bewildered, "I overheard Percy talking to someone about the name Emrys once, apparently it was documented to be Merlin's last name. Peverell is more obscure, but I'm sure that Hermione might know."

"I'll ask her once she's finished the current project that she's working on, probably best to avoid her getting overwhelmed by all the research projects. Besides, I bet that the Goblins will be able to tell me more about the history of the Peverells when I go in later."

"I'd suggest going today if you've got nothing of importance to do," Ron stated wisely, "The Goblins aren't known for patience."

x-x-x-x-x-x

"On one condition," Nick said, suddenly changing tact, "What are Albus' plans to remove the Potter boy out of the Dursley home?"

"They are not iron-clad, Albus is trying to figure out where Harry should go if not to the Dursley's."

Nick growled slightly, he loved his best-friend, he really did, but sometimes Albus had the tendency to bury himself under tonnes of regret if he even did something slightly out of line, He hadn't been able to foresee the damage that could've been done back then, but now he was taking too long and could put an even larger rift between him and his student.

"Alright Severus, I've had enough of remaining in hiding just to retain some semblance of peace. I need to deal with Albus before he does something that we will all come to regret, take me to him."

"Are you sure that is a wise decision, Nick?"

"To hell if it isn't," Nick said firmly, "Albus needs to be told before he goes into some state that leads to people questioning his intentions and accuse him of being nothing more than a manipulative old fool. I will not see my friend's reputation tarnished because of his tendency to beat himself up for his short-comings. Harry and the rest of us will need him as much as we need each other."

Nicholas Flamel finally lowered his hood, revealing his facial appearance in the full. The man was thinner than most would expect, but also not so much that he looked like a skeleton, it seemed that his Origin magic had perfectly replicated the elixir and kept Nicholas as healthy as a horse. His greying hair was spiked up at an odd angle that added to the mystery of his overall look. His ice blue eyes filled with determination, "We must do our duty to ensure the safety of everyone involved in this Severus."

x-x-x-x-

"I'm surprised that he actually convinced you to come out of hiding," Dumbledore stated, peering at Nicholas over his half-moon spectacles, his awe-inspiring blue eyes locking with those of the younger-looking man.

"I'm not here for a trivial catch up Albus, surely you must realize why I have come."

"It's about Harry Potter, isn't it?" Dumbledore asked somewhat sadly, "How did you know?"

"Perenelle."

"She knew of him?"

"Yes, but felt that it wasn't her place to intervene as she did not have much longer on this earth, however, it is _mine_. I am not going to let you fall victim to your own regret old friend. We need to fix the situation with Harry as soon as possible and next summer, he will _not_ be returning to Privet Drive."

"Where will we send him then?"

"You know his inheritances as well as I do, now that he's finally reached his thirteenth birthday, the goblins will start introducing him to that side of his life, I assure you that any one of those properties that he's due to inherit would be a sight better than life for him with Lily's so-called family, blood wards or not."

"Penny knew all of this?" Severus interrupted.

"She did, but I didn't know that her information would become so valuable until you visited my home Severus, so I thank you for enlightening me as to my purpose in this late stage of my life."

"We can't ju…"

"We can Albus, the so-called blood wards you enacted between Mrs. Dursley and Harry are nothing compared to some of the wards that the Potters, Peverells and especially the Emrys line placed on their homes. He would not suffer as much abuse either. There is no argument. Harry Potter will _not_ be returning to Privet Drive at the end of this school year if it is the last thing I do!"

"You heard the prophecy then?"

"I did, but I also don't want to put you under any sort of delusion that I'm going to groom Harry Potter to be a wounded saviour free for dispatch at your earliest convenience, even if that is not your intention Albus, that is _exactly_ what it looks like and I'm not going to let your reputation or anyone else's fall. We have to do what's best for Harry, which in turn will also be doing what's best for the future of the wizarding world."

Dumbledore was in shock, he'd never expected Nicholas to come back into the wizarding world, after-all he had just assumed that he would choose to move into the next world alongside his beloved Perenelle, but it seemed that fate had other plans for one of Albus' oldest friends. What's more is that his friend had come back with a vengeance, ready to do anything to protect the wizarding world.

"Why the sudden change of heart?" Severus interrupted for a second time, "I mean when we first reunited, you mentioned that you wanted no part of this?"

"That's simple," Nick admitted, "I was testing you and your loyalty, don't think I didn't hear about you falling into line with the likes of Voldemort, Severus. Lift your sleeve."

"What?"

" _Lift your sleeve."_

Nick's tone left no room for discussion so Severus was forced to roll back the sleeve of his right arm and reveal the pale flesh which bore the insignia of Voldemort… _The Dark Mark_ that his followers were branded with when they proved themselves worthy of holding it on their flesh.

"I think it's time we show your true loyalties."

"W…What?"

Suddenly Nick's ice-blue eyes filled with a strange light, transforming them into pupil less orbs of pure sapphire power, " _ **Bidh an solas a 'tilleadh chun an tobair, cuir às don ghaoid seo air anam a chaidh a shaoradh!**_ "

A soft golden light lined with sapphire coiled itself around Severus' forearm and within a few moments, The Dark Mark vanished without a trace, for Severus this was the first direct witnessing he'd come to experience of Origin Magic.

"H..How?" He stammered.

"Origin is not unlike magic," Nick explained, "It is just a different kind. Everything that flows through the universe has origin within it. Japanese wizards came to call it Chi, The Americans call it Energy, Pacifics call it Qi. Origin Mages have the ability to manipulate that force of 'Origin.' "

"I think that we are falling a little off the track of conversation."

"You're right Albus," Nick nodded, then turned back to the headmaster, "You must do the right thing Albus, not the easy thing as you seem to have been doing since you discovered the true nature of Harry Potter's life at The Dursley home, you must act now…or I will."

Dumbledore sighed, "Very well, Nicholas. I shall have Harry Potter moved at the end of the school year into one of the properties associated with his ancestors…on the condition that you take position as the adult of the household."

Nicholas sighed, Albus really knew how to throw curve-balls at him, but he wasn't going to let this deter him from doing what he needed to do, "I won't. I'll be busy training him, the Weasley boy and Draco Malfoy when the time comes, I'll need time to prepare for that. Harry Potter should live with his rightful guardian, Sirius Black."

"Nicholas, did you forget?" Dumbledore spoke, that twinkle fading from his eyes, "Harry cannot live with Sirius Black, Black has been imprisoned for betraying The Potters."

"Did Mr. Black receive a trial?"

"No, the wizarding world was in chaos, everyone adored the Potters and there was never any question that he did it. Even I, with my position had limited control of the events that transpired that night, especially since I was busy delivering Harry to his Aunt and Uncles."

"Then, he is innocent," Nick stated in a tone that left no room for discussion, "The true culprit is within arm's reach too. Peter Pettigrew."

"Pettigrew is dead, Nick," Severus stated.

"No, he's not. He's living as a pet rat with The Weasley Family," Nick continued, "That was the final piece of information that Perenelle gave me that night."

"And how was she privy to this information?" Dumbledore questioned.

"You choose to doubt her now? After all the things she knew through her powers? I find my family rather insulted Albus."

"I apologize Nicholas."

"This is your final warning Albus, you'd better find yourself shaping up this year…or we are going to find out how far my anger extends my origin."

x-x-x-x

Harry Potter found himself sauntering into Gringotts Wizarding Bank for the second time that summer, only today wasn't about withdrawing funds from his trust account. This was about some families known as Emrys, Peverell and his own family, The Potters. He didn't understand what this could possibly have to do with him…in his eyes, he'd always been _just_ Harry. Exactly as he'd told Hagrid two years ago when the giant man had come to give Harry his Hogwarts letter. He just hoped that whatever was to come wouldn't be as troublesome as the trials he'd had to face in his first two years at Hogwarts.

"Ah, Mr. Potter."

"Graplock, right?"

"Yes, I've been expecting you…this way please."

The Goblin was good, even Harry had to admit that, noticing him as soon as he'd entered the bank and then proceeding to assist him before he'd even had to visit a desk of any kind. Harry silently followed Graplock through the halls of the upper levels of Gringotts, deciding it best to be silent.

"I'd assumed you'd be brimming with questions," Graplock stated suddenly.

"I guess I'm just nervous," Harry said, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly, "Sorry."

"No need to apologize Mr. Potter."

"Please call me Harry."

Graplock gave Harry a strange look but did concede to the wizard's wishes, "You are much like your mother and father, they both requested the same, so I'm going to give you the same answer I gave them. I'll call you Harry if you call me Graplock."

"Deal, thank you Graplock."

"Not a problem, now just in here Mr-Harry."

Harry was led by Graplock into a small office at the end of the upper halls, it looked as he'd expected to. Rather polished like the rest of the bank while also being rounded into the sort of thing one would see when they stepped into an office of any kind. Harry was slightly less intimidated now that he and Graplock were on a first-name basis…but…there was still a large feeling of unease rushing through his veins.

"Due to the fact that you are the only living heir to the Emrys, Peverell and Potter lines…It is time we dealt with the matter of your inheritances."

"O…okay… What do I have to do?"

"Just make a small incision with," here Graplock paused to remove a strange looking dagger from the inside of his jacket, "This. Then Drop the blood onto the parchment on the desk."

Harry timidly took the knife from the goblin then pricked his finger with it and allowed for a couple of blood droplets to descend onto the parchment.

 _ **Hadrian 'Harry' James Potter-Emrys-Peverell**_

 _ **Age: 13**_

 _ **Nationality: British**_

 _ **Species: Human Wizard**_

 _ **Blood Status: Half-Blood**_

 _ **Inheritances – Emrys Family**_

 _ **Titles:**_

 _ **Lord Emrys – To be taken upon reaching thirteenth birthday if no other appropriate inheritor.**_

 _ **Vaults:**_

 _ **Emrys Family Vault – Estimated Value: 9, 800, 000, 000, 000, 000 Galleons**_

 _ ***Contains Several Non-Monetary Heirlooms**_

 _ **Contracts – Marriage Contract with Greengrass family (off-set from Le-Fay line)**_

 _ **Properties –**_

 _ **Merlin's Tower – Hidden Location**_

 _ **Emrys Castle – Deep in the Forest of Dean.**_

 _ **Potter Inheritances**_

 _ **Titles: Lord Potter – To come into effect upon the inheritor's thirteenth birthday if there exists no other suitable prospect.**_

 _ **Potter Family Vault - 89, 000, 000, 000 Galleons**_

 _ ***Also contains several non-monetary heirlooms.**_

 _ **Contracts – Marriage Contract with Greengrass family, Inherited from Alfonso Greengrass and Charlus Potter.**_

 _ **Properties –**_

 _ **Potter Manor – Hidden Location. Secret-Keeper Sirius Orion Black.**_

 _ **Shell-Side House – Carribean, Hidden Location. Secret-Keeper Remus Lupin**_

 _ **Peverell Inheritances-**_

 _ **Titles:**_

 _ **Lord Peverell – Title shall be received upon inheritor's thirteenth birthday if there exists no other suitable prospects**_

 _ **Vaults:**_

 _ **Peverell Family Vault - 91, 000, 000, 000, 000 Galleons**_

 _ ***Also Contains Non-Monetary Family Heirlooms.**_

 _ **Contracts – Marriage Contract with Davis Family**_

 _ **Properties -**_

 _ **Peverell Castle – Destroyed, Historical Site.**_

Throughout the whole reading, Harry had only registered one of the terms on the parchment, his eyes widened and he shouted in disbelief, "MARRIAGE CONTRACTS!? AND MULTIPLE OF THEM!?"

-End Chapter-

 _ **A/N: As much as I enjoy writing Harry/Ginny I didn't feel as though it would suit the over all tone of this story. I also wanted Harry to have to struggle with coming to terms with the fact that not everyone in Slytherin house is as bad as the whole stigma of 'Pure-Blood Mania' types proves them to be. Draco is one example of the potential for this, but I think this ship adds a little more to the whole conundrum that is this AU take on Harry's life.**_


	6. A New Sort Of Beginning

_**Lumos!**_

 _ **Welcome one and all to another instalment of The Links of Magic, without further ado let us begin!**_

 _ **Disclaimer: Do not own anything associated with Harry Potter**_

Chapter Six: A New Sort of Beginning

Harry Potter was in disbelief, a few moments ago he'd discovered that there were supposedly three marriage contracts in which he was involved, according to Graplock this wasn't uncommon with heirs to multiple Lordship titles.

"This society is so anciently driven," Harry sighed.

"That it is, but unfortunately with the magically binding nature of the contracts there is nothing that we can do about it Harry."

Harry sighed, reasoning that Graplock did have a point. He sighed, raking a hand through his jet-black locks, with his hands tied now…he was just going to have to do the best he could with the information and move forward with his life, putting off talk about the contracts seemed to be the logical idea here. He knew it wasn't that simple, but he could dream, couldn't he?

"Very well, is there anything else I need to be made aware of?" Harry asked, feeling it best to change the subject for now.

"Well, Considering that there are no living magical male heirs for those three titles we must implore you to take the Lordship of your three houses lest they fall into… _unfavourable hands."_

Harry decided it best to heed Graplock's advice, he gave a small nod, "Just tell me what I need to do."

"You must take the family ring of the respective house and repeat this oath, "I Hadrian James Potter hereby do claim lordship of this house as is mine birthright, and the ring will bond you to the lordship if it feels that you are worthy. We'll start with the Potter ring since it is the most likely to accept you as its owner."

Graplock reached into the drawer of his desk and extracted an ornate black velvet box, a moment later he opened the velvet box itself and Harry's jaw dropped, inside was a beautiful golden band with a large Lion's head atop the ring, inside the Lion's eyes were a pair of rubies acting as the Lion's eyes. Trembling slightly, Harry reached over and took the ring into his hand and slipped it onto his finger.

"I Hadrian James Potter hereby claim lordship of this house as is mine birthright."

For a few seconds there was nothing, then a bright light emanated from the core of the twin rubies signifying the ring accepting Harry as its bearer.

"Well done Harry, it looks like that went off with a hitch, your next most likely inheritance is The Peverell line."

Harry took the ring and repeated the process with the Peverell ring which accepted him as its bearer as well.

"And finally, the Emrys family ring."

The same process granted Harry lordship of the Emrys family.

"Well, Lord Potter Emrys Peverell, it looks like you are all set now to move on with our ventures for today, would you seek to visit your family vaults?"

"Not today," Harry said, shaking his head, "I feel it best to wait. Something tells me that I should."

Of course Harry wanted to see them, probably more than anything else in the world, but he also understood that he had many other things to worry about right now, including how he was supposed to find out who these witches that he was supposedly engaged to were. Deciding it might be best if he got a head start on things, he turned back to Graplock, "Do you have any idea who they might be? The betrothed I mean…"

"Unfortunately, I do not, it is not very often that Goblins are privy to the dealings of wizards, we merely keep a record of the last names and which family they pertain to."

"Brilliant," Harry responded sarcastically.

"I assure you that it will work out for the best, Harry. These sorts of things have a way of working themselves out. I have seen several others through the same sort of process over the years, including ones where a lone male was betrothed to multiple witches…it usually ends rather salubrious for all involved."

"I'm not sure that I am ready to accept it yet, Graplock, but I guess I've got no choice since it is likely that the contracts are magically binding."

"Quite," Graplock agreed, "All the families you are associated with do so to avoid their contracts being tampered with. It is one way to ensure that less than favourable parties get their hands on it."

"There is one other matter I feel that we should discuss while we're here."

"And what would that be Harry?"

"Did my parents leave a will?"

"They did…but it was sealed by Minister Bagnold when she had you sent to the Dursleys, only a living Potter heir can assume the right to unseal the will, but I assume that she thought you would never know the information as she didn't bother to have it registered to alert her or The Ministry if it was ever unsealed.

Harry took a few moments to ponder this, wondering if he was ready to handle the gravity of what his parents' will might contain. He did come to the assumption that it may clear up some things surrounding the marriage contracts…at least the one that his father had drawn up with the supposed 'Greengrass' Family.

"I, Lord Hadrian James Potter Emrys Peverell, hereby request that the will of James and Lily Potter be unsealed as is mine birthright," Harry hadn't really had long to come up with how he was going to request officially for the will to be unsealed, but he used the ring bonding ceremony as a base and hoped it didn't sound absolutely ridiculous.

"I'm surprised how fast you picked up the officialities."

"I kind of just followed the same sort of thought process into the wording as the one that went with the rings, I'm glad that it turned out okay."

Graplock smiled, the grin was almost feral…and the goblin became even more surprised when Harry didn't coil, when his people usually did this, it was seen as a sign of intimidation or threat by most wizards. Young Lord Potter Emrys Peverell was something else, a confounding mystery that Graplock wished to never be solved.

"I had a feeling that this conversation would lead to this. Come."

Graplock stood from behind his desk and led Harry out into the bank once more, "We have dealt with a lot today Harry, are you sure that you do not wish to reschedule an appointment to handle such a thing?"

"I'm sure," Harry agreed, "I'd rather get it over and done with now before I let myself fester for an entire year, Hogwarts starts tomorrow and I'd rather not wait until next July before reading my parents will, anything can happen between now and then especially considering that it's me."

"Very well, come along Harry."

x-x-x-x-

Daphne Greengrass had been raised as a pureblood, but not one laced with blood supremacy as most of her Slytherin peers had, her parents were neutral in the last war, preferring to instead focus on their own personal lives rather than get involved with Voldemort and his followers or The Ministry. Adrian Greengrass, Daphne's father, had thought that by standing neutral they might give both themselves and James and Lily more chance of survival. While not in their band of Marauders, Adrian had been quite close to James and Sirius whilst the trio were attending Hogwarts. They proved that the inter-house rivalry didn't always have to borderline on pathological. Adrian was their agent inside so-to-speak and would always be the one advising on the location of specific Slytherins before the invention of the Marauder's Map.

Unlike their betrothed, Daphne and her younger sister, Astoria, had been raised around stories about their parents' time at Hogwarts and several other things that occurred before they'd been born. They were informed very early on about their respective contracts to Harry and warned as they got older that he might not have been afforded the same respect as they had been and would not know of the contract until he had it revealed to him and asked that they did not reveal their knowledge of it until such a time came as Harry asked them about it. It'd been something that James and he had resounded to do just in case the worst came to fall and for whatever reason James and Lily couldn't tell Harry themselves.

Daphne and Astoria were getting tired of watching their future betrothed and his path of self-destruction, it was really unbecoming of him. In Daphne's first year, Harry had gone after the Philosopher's stone that had been stupidly hidden beneath the school, they didn't know too much of the specifics since it was kept rather hush-hush, but they did know that Voldemort had been involved somehow. Similarly, in Daphne's second year and Astoria's first, a young girl, Weasley if the elder of the two remembered correctly and Harry had fought off the monster, rescuing the girl and returning her to her family.

"I'm getting tired of watching him get pushed around," Astoria growled to her sister, "it has to end, Daph! I'm getting closer to punching Malfoy square in the jaw the next time I see him."

"You know the circumstances surrounding those two," Daphne chastised her younger sister, "We can't get involved with that or it might ruin everything, but either way I think Harry needs to be told about the contracts he has, the ones with either of us and the final one with Tracey. It doesn't matter now whether he's been told or not. We've only got until Potter's fifteenth birthday to get him used to this, which is two years from now and I'm afraid we just don't have time to wait around for him to be told by someone else."

"We must speak with father about it," Astoria agreed.

"As soon as he returns from work, it's what we're going to do. Sitting here waiting for something to happen never solved anything."

x-x-x-x-

Harry continued to follow Graplock throughout the halls of the wizarding bank, his heart was almost pounding against his chest, he was hoping that his parents' will would clear up some mysteries, but at the same time he was incredibly nervous about seeing their last official document within their lifetimes. It was truly a strange experience.

The bank seemed to carry a sense of foreboding within it now, at least in Harry's mind. The marble flooring, the high pillars of the same material…it all seemed so different than when he first entered as if the very structure could sense his apprehension going into the next part of his appointment. Graplock suddenly pulled Harry inside a room filled with several cubby-holes that the young wizard could only relate to being like a wine cellar that he'd seen on muggle tv once when the Dursleys' weren't paying too much attention to what he was doing.

Graplock tapped the desk and spoke, "Will of James Charlus Potter and Lily Jasmine Potter nee Evans."

"Request denied, Will has been sealed as per orders from Minister Bagnold."

"Request overturned, claimed by Lord Potter Emrys Peverell."

Suddenly a piece of parchment flew out of a cubby hole near the top and descended rapidly towards the desk, only stopping a mere inch above the desk and then it landed on the desk with a soft thud! Harry took a deep breath, this was it. The moment he found out the truth. He didn't know how he knew that it was this moment that he would, it was just something in his heart that told him his parents wouldn't leave him behind without any kind of information whatsoever.

Graplock placed his finger against the closed scroll, a low hiss filled the room and not even a moment passed before the scroll unfurled itself onto the desk.

"The reading of this will is now public and all contents herein are rendered completely valid," Graplock stated, the Goblin knowing of its necessity to be stated before the process of the reading began.

Suddenly, the will evaporated and transformed into two figures whom Harry had come to recognize exceptionally well in the past two years. His mother and father, having first seen them in the mirror of Erised in his first year at Hogwarts School.

" _Well, if you're seeing us in this state Harry it must mean that we've bitten the big one and you're not with us any longer."_

" _James, try and at least be serious."_

" _That's Padfoot's job."_

" _Really James?"_

" _Sorry Lily-Flower, anyway. We're really sorry that we can't be with you if this is the case Harry as much as your mother and I would love to see you grow up and find enjoyment in life, we realize that with Voldemort after us, this mightn't be possible."_

" _We do still wish for you to make the most of your life Harry, no matter what anyone else tells you. You are a special boy, even if you mightn't appreciate that just yet. But before we go any further, there is some business we need to attend to, if there is anyone else present at this will reading, we ask that Harry's custody be given to his godfather Sirius Black, if for some reason Sirius cannot have Harry, our next lines of wishes are as follows, Remus Lupin, Adrian and Aurora Greengrass, Chadwin and Anabelle Davis, Andromeda Tonks, Minerva McGonagall, Frank and Alice Longbottom, Amelia Bones, if all of these options we would request that Harry stay with Albus Dumbledore. We understand that you are a busy man, Albus…which is why you are the final on the list."_

 _Here, James decided to jump in while Lily was taking a breather, "Harry before your mother continues with that. I want to hereby engage your Lordship of The Potter, Peverell and Emrys lines. This will be important in your future but be sure that you do not blindly trust the ministry, they are corrupt to the core, I'm sure you'll come to notice this as you grow older however."_

" _As I was saying," Lily put in, "Under no circumstances whatsoever is Harry to be placed with my sister Petunia Dursley and her husband as both detest magic and this would lead them to hate Harry just because of what he can do."_

 _James once again took over, "Harry if you're here listening to this, it will also mean you know about the Marriage contracts between you and houses Greengrass and Davis. We did this to ensure that no one untoward manipulated you into being their poster boy. DO NOT TRUST THE MINISTRY. Apart from that reasoning, we grew up with their parents at Hogwarts and know that the unions of our families are what's best for everyone involved, it also helps that both of the girls mothers' were excellent lookers in our day. So, you'll get off quite lucky."_

" _James!" Lily exclaimed, before she quickly shook her head and continued speaking, "Also, if this will is being read Peter Pettigrew was our secret keeper and is the reason we're dead. Sirius Black never betrayed either Lily or myself in any uncertain terms."_

" _Our next bequeath is five hundred thousand galleons to Remus Lupin, Moony old pal go and use that money how you see fit, but by the gods, get yourself a decent pair of robes man!"_

" _Another bequest is to Sirius Orion Black, as we know you'll have no need of money throughout your entire lifetime as the Blacks are as rich as The Potters, we're leaving James' old motorcycle to you in the hopes that you'll teach Harry to ride it when he's old…you can't give him ideas like that James!"_

" _Let the kid live a little, Lily!"_

 _Lily sighed, "Our next bequests are for the Greengrass and Davis families respectively. We ask that you help prepare Sirius and Harry as best as you can for the struggles to come, we love them both dearly, I just don't think that Sirius will be able to prepare Harry adequately with him being so focused on having fun all the time. Yes, he is a master of pranks and duelling when he wants to be, but Harry will need all the help he can get."_

" _I James Charlus Potter, Current Lord of The Most Ancient and Most Noble House of Potter do hereby announce that all marriage contracts in the state of the Potter, Peverell and Emrys lines become active upon the reading of this will to Hadrian James Potter."_

" _I Lily Jasmine Potter, Current Lady of The Most Ancient and Most Noble House of Potter do hereby announce that James is an idiot. Also, Harry…we love you never forget that. We love you more than you will ever know. Keep your friends and your betrothed close. You'll find life isn't worth living without them."_

 _Together the two illusions turned to each other and smiled, "We James and Lily Potter being of sound minds and bodies hereby declare this, our last will and testament to be completely binding and all other wills in regard to our estates and heirship be considered null and void."_

By the time the two figures vanished, Harry's eyes were brimmed with tears, some of the precipitation had flowed down openly onto his cheeks, but Harry didn't care. There was nothing to be ashamed of, it didn't matter if anyone could possibly judge him for this. His parents had tried to ensure that Harry didn't end up at the Dursleys'…what's more is that this so-called Prisoner of Azkaban he'd been told was after him had been innocent, but…how could he prove the man's innocence? It'd be something he'd have to work on throughout the year along with getting used to all the other changes in his life.

"Graplock?"

"Yes Harry?"

"Would that will hold up in court?"

"I believe it would yes, but the Ministry would have to announce an actual trial first. Which is incredibly unlikely," Graplock answered, knowing automatically which part of the will Harry had been referring to.

"I'm going to try and work on that," Harry said firmly, "While also undoing the stupidity of this Bagnold's plans for me."

"I must admit this information is unprecedented and with great respect Lord Potter Emrys Peverell I would like to extend an offer of friendship from myself and the Goblin Nation."

Harry didn't even have to think about this for a moment, the Goblins' would powerful allies in the future and Harry could definitely see an alliance between his family and the Nation of the Goblins being rather fruitful, "One condition."

"Another condition?" Graplock tried not to smirk, "And what would it be this time?"

"I want you to teach me the finer points of your society and its tradition."

"Why?"

"Because, I want to have a sense of who I am allying myself with and not the stupid rumours that the sickening bigots of wizarding society has painted over the years, I want the truth."

"You are truly an interesting wizard, Harry Potter."

"As are you, Bank Teller Graplock…or should I say Goblin King Ragnarok."

"H..how?"

"Professor Binns does nothing but drone on about the Rebellion Wars and Your name was quite prominent, I vaguely remember him saying something about you using an alias after those wars in order to protect yourself from more prevalent enemies."

"I was under the assumption that the Ghost bored everyone as half to death as he naturally is? At least that's what many Hogwarts students have complained to their parents about when they come in here."

"It wouldn't be as boring if we had a teacher who knew both sides of the stories that were being portrayed in the classroom, the reason that so many of us fall asleep in the usual classes is because Professor Binns' material only follows the point of view given by wizards."

"As I said before, Harry, you are a truly interesting wizard and if anyone can bring about change within this world it is you."

x-x-x-x

"Dad!" Daphne called as she rushed down the stairs with Astoria in tow, but as soon as she reached the bottom of the stairs, she saw that her father was standing alongside a tall man with dark hair and striking green eyes, the gleam in them that Daphne was accustomed to seeing whenever her adoptive uncle visited, but that was gone today. Chadwin Davis looked extremely stressed.

"So," Adrian began, turning his head toward the appearance of the daughters rushing towards the stairs, "I assume you heard your Uncle Chadwin here?"

"No, but we're still happy to see you!" The younger of the two girls said excitedly, rushing over to give the man a hug, Daphne following suit at a much more sedate pace than her sister, hugging Chadwin from the other side.

"Hello, my darlings, I trust that your summer has been pleasant?"

"It has Uncle Chadwin, we've been having a really good time, but we still can't wait to go back to Hogwarts!" Astoria beamed excitedly, she'd always been the more excitable of the two Greengrass daughters, while Daphne was calmer and collected.

"I bet you can't, none of us could wait either, especially when James Potter and Sirius Black were part of the equation, never a dull moment when it came to those two."

Not to be deterred from her mission, Daphne continued by looking between the two men and speaking, "I want to tell Harry about the betrothal contracts, we only have two years before they're going to be forced on us and we'd rather him know what he's going into and not getting all teenage boy moody when he finds out."

"Harry already knows, that's why Chadwin's here, apparently, Harry has read his parents will meaning that he would've had the ancestry test done and now knows his true place within our world."

"I wish the Goblins would've waited a little longer, Adrian."

"I assure you that I somewhat share your concern, but at least this way, Harry and the girls will have a little bit more time to prepare themselves for what is to come. Have you told Tracey?"

He nodded, "Like Daphne and Astoria here, she's known since she was old enough to understand, but I worry about Harry and how he'll take to being bonded to our girls, since the only real example of Slytherin House he's got to go off is that ponce Lucius' son."

"Has inter-house relations really fallen that low?"

Chadwin nodded, "it's fallen to the state it was in when you and James first started out before you started breaking down those barriers again. Some say that even though the two spent a good deal of the time arguing and fighting within their first couple of years…I have it on good authority that the relationship between Harry and the young Malfoy is set to change, but until then the bad version of the boy's personality is all Harry has to go off where Slytherin is concerned. While it is ambition and cunning, most in other houses just see Slytherin as a breeding ground for dark wizards."

"We'll show him that he's wrong about us," Astoria said with a determined gleam in her eyes, "Kidnap him if we have to."

"I doubt that kidnapping the poor boy is a good way to convince him that we're different to the rest of our house, Tori."

"What other options do we have, Daph?"

"Oh, I don't know…acting normally and getting to know him maybe?"

"Oh, right…" Astoria said, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly.

"He's a normal person and we should treat him as such," Adrian Greengrass stated firmly, "The moment that Harry starts to think we're after his fame is the moment that we lose any sort of trust from him. His parents made these contracts because they felt that, along with me. That the four of you were a match made for each other. Not for his fame, it is important that you ensure Harry of this, it is important that you're honest with him and all the usual things that come with marriage alright?"

"If he looks like anything like his father, you girls will be very lucky."

Adrian chuckled, "Aurora, I hardly think it's the time to be thinking about that side of their relationship, with all that I've heard about Harry from Albus, he'll be far too noble to try anything of that sort until the timing is absolutely perfect and that won't be until all four of them are considerably older."

"What do we do?"

"Interesting question…I can't say for sure, since there's only a day before Hogwarts…Perhaps it is something better to broach at the end of this year?"

"We can't leave it lying for that long," Aurora warned her husband, "Astoria in particular is very excitable, the risk of the information of their identities being accidentally revealed is too great a risk."

"Mother!" Astoria exclaimed indignantly.

"It's not untrue," Aurora told her daughter, then turned to Adrian, "I'd suggest writing to him and inviting him to meet with you at King's Cross so that you may introduce him…but do it." Here, Aurora paused to include Chadwin in her gaze as well, "As a united front and that way there's a possibility we could at least get them to sit on the train together at Hogwarts."

"Not a bad idea, Rory," Chadwin agreed.

"She's got a good point," Adrian nodded, "And even if he denies the summons, we know it best to wait."

"Of course."

x-x-x-x

"A Marriage Contract!?" Ron exclaimed, aghast, "They can't really expect you to go through with that can they?"

"Ron…it's four marriage contracts and if I want to keep my magic, apparently they can."

"Well what are the names?"

"There was no first names mentioned only last names. Two Greengrass contracts and a Davis one. The names seem vaguely familiar but I can't place it."

"They are the names of students who attend Hogwarts," Hermione interjected.

"Well, tell us who?" Ron said, effectively cutting her off.

"No," Hermione said haughtily, "If you two only want to know someone when it affects you I'm not going to be a part of it. I'm more interested in Ragnarok wanting to ally his nation with you."

"That Hermione, is a mystery even to me."

 _ **End Chapter**_

 _ **Somehow the words just flowed out of me for this one XD anyways, as always please read and review, also if anyone has any ideas for the story please let me know, this doesn't include changing Harry's pairing, because it is set in stone and unlike some of my other stories I won't be changing it down the line.**_

 _ **For anyone interested in my other works I will suggest the others that are being regularly updated.**_

 _ **Harry Potter and The Fall of The Caelin: The Sequel to Merlin's Promise Phoenix. Granted only one Chapter is posted right now, but I'm working on the second chapter as you read this.**_

 _ **A Different Sort of Light: A Different look at the Harry Potter world through a completely unorthodox lens, a random inspiration I got one day that evolved into so much more.**_

 _ **Contracts of Victory: Marriage Contracts seems to be a favourite genre of mine at the moment and this one features one between Harry and The Delacour Sisters. I'll be updating this one again soon with longer chapters.**_

 _ **Until Next time my friends,**_

 _ **Nox!**_


	7. Missing Pieces

_**Lumos!**_

 _ **Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or anything associated with it.**_

CHAPTER SEVEN: MISSING PIECES

"Four marriage contracts?" Hermione asked, "You said a few moments ago that there was only three? Harry…"

Harry sighed, he forgot that he'd said that, but he felt that he should at least be partially honest with his best-friends, they were all he had in this crazy world after all.

"Alright it happened like this…"

" _I can't wait to be able to teach you all about our customs Harry, it's been far too long since we've had a wizard who could unite all the magical beings in the world under a single banner."_

" _I've got to do what no other person will and I'd rather that we had allies that are worth our consideration. Wizarding Society has done itself a major disservice by only employing Goblins to work in its banks. Yes, your people and you have come to enjoy it…but…your majesty, you were a King and now you are subservient to a bunch of commoners…that just doesn't sit right with me."_

" _I can assure you that it doesn't sit right with me either."_

" _I will make sure that we fix the damage that Wizarding Society has done to itself over the years, especially if all the information I've read today is as troubling as it sounds."_

 _All of a sudden, the Heritage test that Graplock had brought along with him to verify Harry's identity to the will began to glow…brighter and brighter, almost to the point that it was blinding just to look at._

 _ **Flamel Inheritances –**_

 _ **Heir to the Most Ancient and Most Noble Family of Flamel current Lord of House Nicholas Flamel.**_

 _ **Vaults –**_

 _ **None yet as the ownership of these vaults are currently in possession of Lord Flamel**_

 _ **Properties –**_

 _ **None yet as the ownership of these properties are currently in possession of Lord Flamel**_

 _ **Contracts:**_

 _ **Allegiance Contract with House Dumbledore.**_

 _ **Allegiance Contract with House Le-Fay**_

 _ **Allegiance Contract with House Potter**_

 _ **Allegiance Contract with House Emrys**_

 _ **Allegiance Contract with House Bones**_

 _ **Allegiance Contract with The Goblin Nation of Vruhnoild**_

 _ **Marriage Contract with The Black Family.**_

" _Another marriage contract!? I also thought Sirius was the last Black?"_

" _He is the last Male Black, There are other female descendants of the line which do not carry the name Narcissa Malfoy for example is one of these people."_

" _I'm going to have to marry someone as old as Malfoy's mother!?" Harry gasped in an affronted tone._

" _No, not to worry Harry, I feel that there is someone closer to your own age…but she is still a fair amount older at the same time."_

" _I wonder if…I wonder if the only way the Flamel Contract could be activated was if I pledged my allegiance to Vruhlnoid, I mean it would make sense for Lord Flamel to set up the security of his family inheritances that way because most wizards don't like Goblins."_

" _It is entirely possible, but Lord Flamel's father was before my time so I may never know. I am only in my early four hundredth decade, but The Flamels are early thirteenth century and even before then."_

" _Then…wait…Flamel…Flamel…The creator of the stone is still alive!?"_

" _Yes, although I do not know why, it seems that Nicholas has managed to find a way to stay alive even after the destruction of the Philosopher's Stone."_

" _You know about that?"_

" _Albus Dumbledore also, believe it or not has a strong relationship with our nation."_

" _Looks like I've got even more reason to free Sirius now, I need to find out more about this supposed contract with a member of his extended family."_

 _Harry was silent as he contemplated what was going to happen next…he had so many things to do, so many things to piece together…it just didn't make sense…There were so many loopholes…The Ministry was manipulating his life since birth…and Harry really didn't like that._

 _Perhaps it would change with Fudge, who was more clueless than manipulative, and he could've simply been unawares of the changes that Bagnold had made or felt it senseless to change it…but ultimately, Harry doubted that. He was going to have to get Fudge out of power and put someone competent in the role…But who? That he could answer later, he had to make sure he got through this year at least._

"So…you're supposed to marry into one of the darkest magical families in Britain?" Ron said, trying not to blanche.

"At least you've got your strange new powers to protect you," Hermione sympathized.

"What if not everyone in the Black family is evil? Like a black sheep sort of deal."

"Are you sure that's even possible?"

"Not really no."

"It mightn't be as bad as you two think."

"What's the bet he's betrothed to a bunch of slimy snakes."

" _Ron!"_ Hermione cried indignantly.

"Knowing me and how my luck usually go, I bet Ron's right," Harry said bitterly.

"I'm sure it's not all that bad, Harry."

"Speak for yourself," Harry and Ron spoke darkly. 

x-x-x-x-x

"I wish James was here to at least explain the contracts to him," Adrian said with a heavy sigh, "I mean how are we even supposed to get a letter sent to him and expect it to arrive before the boy leaves for Hogwarts in the morning?"

"I do see the concern, old friend," Chadwin agreed, trying in vain not to laugh, "I mean can you imagine him getting a letter to sit with our daughters on the train while he was getting ready to sleep on his first night at Hogwarts?"

"Very funny, Chadwin. There has to be a way that we can deliver this letter without running out of time, most owls magically know where they're going but it still takes them a couple of days at least."

"We could just charm it to appear wherever he is?" Aurora suggested, "That way we don't have to worry about it falling into the wrong hands either."

"It is a possible solution…" Adrian agreed, "But I think we should actually write the letter before we make any sort of decision on how to transport it."

"Adrian's right, no use sending an empty envelope," Chadwin finished.

"I think I might have a way to pen this."

Suddenly Aurora's eyes widened, "This changes things."

"What is it?"

"James and Lily didn't think that it would be possible for Harry while being under the Ministry's scrutiny, but it seems that he's activated the Flamel bloodline and Marriage contract as well."

"So, he's going to have four wives to deal with?" Adrian asked.

"Poor kid," Chadwin looked as though he was going to say more in terms of the joke, but the sharp glares from Astoria, Daphne and Aurora cut him off where he stood.

"Never mind that, we'd better get to writing this letter."

Aurora Greengrass turned back to her daughters', "Have you finished packing for tomorrow morning? I don't want to be rushing around for the entire morning because either of you has forgotten something. I know that you are both generally really good at being organised but it doesn't hurt to check before such a long time away from home."

"I'm done," Daphne stated, "Checked everything about an hour ago."

"I'm almost done, I just need to grab one or two more things."

Astoria turned to leave, and she smiled thoughtfully before ascending the stair-well and heading back to her bedroom.

"I hope he takes it well, considering that he'll probably have no idea who we are at first."

"I know Daphne, but it is as it must be for now, your father and Uncle Chadwin will get this sorted out and your lives will continue on, albeit a lot differently than what Harry had initially thought, but it might be what's best for all of you. At least that's what we all hoped when your fathers drew those contracts up."

"I know mother, but he's known for his temper, if nothing else."

"I know dear, but you'll get through to him. You just have to have faith in that much."

"Let's wait to see what happens with this letter before we reserve judgement at least," Daphne said, willing to let herself accept her fate, knowing there was no point trying to fight it at this point. She did know that her sister, at least, was excited, something that didn't go unnoticed by Daphne, but she also understood that her sister had an excitable personality in the first place and it was probably down to that…or the true weight of the situation hadn't hit Astoria yet…which even though they were raised knowing the truth…it had seemed so far away until now.

"I need to take some time for a little, prepare myself. Even if he agrees to meet with us tomorrow, I am not expecting to go well at the very least at best he might snort that it's some kind of joke, at worse he'll accuse us of being another of Malfoy's cronies and hex us out of his compartment accompanied by a warning to stay the hell away from him. I assure you mother I am willing to give this a chance, but if he hurts Astoria in any sense of the word I will make him suffer for the rest of his life."

"I understand, but do not think the worst of him, I mean you haven't even really spoken to the boy. Give him a chance, Daphne. You might just be glad you did."

Taking that as her mother's final word, the young Slytherin witch politely excused herself, before heading upstairs after her sister.

"If they only knew," Adrian said, trying to hide his smirk, but failing miserably.

"Knew what?" Chadwin asked.

"You don't remember?"

"I'm lost, Adrian."

"That first year when James and Lily were still with us and we went and visited with them, I'd never seen anyone so protective of anyone before."

Chadwin suddenly laughed as the memories hit him, "If I remember correctly, Astoria, Daphne and Tracey wouldn't let anyone but us and James and Lily within a two-meter radius of him. They eventually warmed up to Sirius and Remus…they never liked Peter for some reason though."

"There was also an eight-year-old witch who didn't like anyone coming near them much either. Perhaps even then, their magic _knew_ that they were destined to be fated together. Even before the contracts."

"Wait, how did James know about the Flamel line?"

"It's a secret passed down from male heir to male heir," Adrian explained, "Only people close to the Potter family are supposed to know just how magically diverse their family actually is. Since several of them were worried that they might be used for wealth or any manner of other things within the world."

"That's understandable."

"So you and James?"

"Didn't do anything untoward," both Adrian and Chadwin stated, "Sirius was present as well, at least for the Flamel Contract."

"You make it sound like James _knew_ that Harry was going to befriend the Goblins enough to come into friendship bonds with the Goblin's nation, how could he have possibly predicted that?"

"He didn't," Chadwin said sadly, "he was heartbroken giving little Nym a contract that might never be fulfilled, but he trusted the universe to sort itself out and give Harry what he needed right from the time he was born."

"So…Nym will remember Harry?"

"Yes," Chadwin nodded sadly, "but because he was so young at the time, Harry won't remember her."

"That poor girl," Aurora said morosely.

"They're still young," Adrian countered, "We have the time to fix this."

"Hopefully we can do it before they get too much older," Chadwin agreed.

"Guys, I think we're getting a little off topic here," Adrian continued, "We need to finish this letter or it won't reach Harry in time before he leaves for the station tomorrow."

"Right."

"We'll also need to write Dumbledore."

"Why's that Chadwin?"

"Well, with Harry taking all possible entrants into the Davis and Greengrass lines, that will prevent many families from getting their own hands on our family fortunes, not to mention the more than ample amount of witches and families who will be more than anguished that they missed out on the Potter legacy."

"Which is why we did this in the first place…" Aurora quickly pointed out.

"Yes, we did. But…that also puts Harry and the girls in a position of great danger, they could be attacked the moment their back is turned, the only way a marriage contract is made null and void without any party losing their magic is by the death of one of the two betrothed. So attackers could wipe out the girls to have a shot at the Potter finances, or wipe out Harry to have a go at our own finances."

"I see your point, we'll need to organize a private common room for them, even if they don't like the idea at first it's for their protection."

x-x-x-x

Harry was sitting in his room at the Leaky Cauldron that night, he couldn't sleep for some reason. Whether it was the sense of foreboding the contracts gave him, or several other things that had cropped up from the meeting with Graplock earlier in the day. Harry was jolted out of his thoughts when he felt something nuzzling against his hand, a smile crossed the young man's features and he downturned his vision to see Midnight was responsible.

' _Something troubling you, Harry?'_

' _A little, I mean I'm supposed to marry four witches…and the contracts didn't really give any indication to how long I had…"_

" _Well, Marriage Contracts are usually enacted when the male reaches his fifteenth year, and the contracts have until the male's sixteenth year to be carried out in the form of a wedding if this is not done the contracts become null and void…in which time all parties involved lose their magic."_

' _What's worse is that I don't even know who these contracts are supposedly binding me to, I know the last names as they were mentioned in the inheritance tests…but not the first.'_

' _That's because most of the contracts specifically deal with the union of the two families, not much consideration is given into the individual feelings of the victims.'_

' _Victims, Midnight?'_ Harry found it hard to keep the smirk of his face when Midnight said this through their bond, it was as if the two of them shared similar feelings on the subject.

' _I have seen others go through the same things you have, Harry, and for what it's worth I wouldn't have liked to see the same thing happen to you. In your case, you're just going to make the best of it I guess. There's not much else one can do when they're tied up in a Magically binding contract.'_

' _Midnight, how old are you exactly?'_

' _It's hard to pinpoint exactly, but I'd say roughly around sixteen hundred."_

' _SIXTEEN HUNDRED!?'_

The conversation between wizard and familiar was cut short when an envelope landed squarely on the centre of Harry's bedside table within his room at the Leaky Cauldron, the young Lord Potter Emrys Peverell's eyebrows shot up, his eyes being laced with curiosity, usually the only people who sent mail this way was the Ministry.

Deciding it best to get whatever it was out into the open, Harry reached over and took the envelope within his hands and tore it open, pulling the folded parchment out from within. He opened the parchment then began to read.

 _ **Lord Hadrian James Potter Emrys Peverell,**_

 _ **Heir to the title of Lord Flamel.**_

 _ **Harry, I know you probably have a disdain for your titles, but do not be ashamed of your heritage. Your mother and father were two of the kindest people I know. I suppose I should start off by introducing myself and the one writing this letter to you. I am Adrian, Lord of The Most Ancient and Most Noble House Greengrass. The man writing this with me is Chadwin, Lord of The Most Ancient and Most Noble House Davis.**_

 _ **Seeing as the marriage contracts between our families was activated a couple of days ago no doubt that our last names sound at least somewhat familiar to you. We feel it best for all parties involved if you were to meet with us on the morning of September First at King's Cross Station, here we can introduce you to both ourselves and our families including your future betrotheds. Well three out of four of them, we are not sure about the circumstances surrounding the final one for the time being, but we can discuss this a little bit more at a future time.**_

 _ **As September The First is tomorrow, don't worry about answering this letter, as no owl would be able to make the delivery in a single night. Merely meet us on Platform if you are interested in meeting us, otherwise do not and we will know that you are not ready yet, which we will respect as your decision if you choose to do so and not think any less of you for it.**_

 _ **Looking forward to an opportunity to meet you.**_

 _ **Lord Adrian Greengrass and Lord Chadwin Davis.**_

' _It looks like you won't have to wait much longer to get more answers then, Harry. Are you going to meet with them?'_ Midnight had asked the moment Harry finished reading the letter.

' _I think I should, they said they'd respect my decision, but I expect that I cannot be foolish enough to think that they will respect my decision for much longer considering that whichever of their family members I'm betrothed to will lose their magic if I decide that I do not want to be a part of the contracts. I think I would be better to bite the proverbial bullet.'_

' _Did they give you much of an inkling into the fourth one under the Black contract was?'_

' _No. But Graplock told me that it would be someone that doesn't carry the Black name specifically, they'd still be a part of the line technically speaking, they just wouldn't carry the name of their ancestors or something like that.'_

' _Either way, you should get some rest, I doubt you want to make a bad first impression despite how negative the situation seems, Harry.'_

' _You're quite right, I hope Ron and Hermione don't get too bothered by it all.'_

' _They shouldn't, if they are truly your friends, it won't matter to them what things have turned out being like. Besides, they know choice of your own.'_

Harry gave Midnight one final scratch behind the ears, then removed his glasses and placed them atop the letter before throwing back the covers of the four-poster bed within his room at the Leaky Cauldron and collapsed into bed, asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.

x-x-x-x

Harry Potter felt like he'd only been asleep for two minutes when his eyes opened the next morning, his nerves had not abated at all over the previous night and he found himself waking up more than once within the middle of the night, this had frustrated Midnight who'd growled at his master and all but ordered him to go back to sleep. Finally, the sun hit the window of his room and Harry was unable to sleep any longer.

' _If I didn't know better I'd think that you were actually excited for this meeting._ '

' _I'm anxious for it to be over, Midnight.'_ Harry corrected the Weretiger, ' _I just want it over and done with so I can go back to enjoying my time at Hogwarts like a normal person.'_

' _I can guarantee that last bit's not going to happen, Harry. It's you. You can never have a normal year at Hogwarts, it's just not going to happen at all, I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you this, but it's the truth. After everything you've told me about the first two years you've spent there, it seems that is probably only the beginning of a long tenure of crazy experiences.'_

Trying his best to ignore the validity of Midnight's claims, Harry yanked his glasses off the letter that he'd received the previous night and shoved them onto his face, trying to fight off the groggy feeling still resting within his system from the lack of sleep he'd gotten, maybe once he'd met the families on the platform he'd be able to take a nap on the train and catch up on the sleep he'd missed.

"Harry, are you awake?"

"Yeah, I'm up mate," Harry called back when he heard Ron's voice through the door.

"Tom took our belongings downstairs earlier, we'll be leaving in about twenty minutes."

"Alright, thanks."

' _We will get through this meeting Harry, I can assure you of that much. Whatever comes to pass I shall not let them hurt you.'_

' _Thank you, Midnight.'_

As Ron had said, twenty minutes later, Harry, Hermione and The Weasleys were all piling into the backs of Ministry issued cars that Arthur had managed to book them through his job there. While the ride was short, Harry had to admit that the journey felt overly quick for the distance between the two destinations. Harry vaguely wondered if he was purposely going through this because of the event he wanted to avoid at all costs.

Once they'd arrived at King's Cross the large group moved through the amass of the crowd that was heading through the busy station as they tried to travel to work or wherever else they needed to go. Harry was always uncomfortable around large groups, but found that Fred, George, and Ron had subsequently surrounded him as if to keep him away from the onslaught. Harry was grateful for this and gave all three a nod to show that he did.

The group rushed up the station, past several muggle platforms and other things like vending machines and there was even a small café hidden in the back of the station, but Harry still was only focused on one thing. In a few moments he would be meeting with his betrotheds and their families. At least we could get to meet the duo known as Adrian and Chadwin first, who by the tone of their letter seemed alright…at least he hoped so and that he hadn't made a major miscalculation into the tone of their writing of course.

Hedwig hooted from her cage softly as if to reassure him, while Midnight snoozed away lazily inside his cage. Right at that moment, their group finally arrived at the barrier between Platforms Nine and Ten, Harry didn't even wait for a single moment, he checked that the coast was clear then pelted at the barrier as if he was afraid that Dobby might seal it again.

Once he'd gotten to the other side, he heard laughter from his left side, "I haven't seen anyone so excited about meeting me for at least a few years."

 _ **End Chapter.**_

 _ **Now, I know I said that I wasn't going to add after the initial three contracts, but I made a typo in the previous chapter and suddenly, this idea sprung into my head. I am going to state unequivocally now that Harry's harem is now closed. I hope you enjoyed this latest chapter and that you will of course read and review, Flames as always will be ignored and shoved down Voldemort's backside.**_

 _ **Nox!**_


	8. He Just Had To Be Right

_**Lumos!**_

 _ **Disclaimer: Do not own Harry Potter or anything associated with it.**_

CHAPTER EIGHT: HE JUST HAD TO BE RIGHT.

"Lord Greengrass I expect?" Harry said softly, not really wanting to reveal that he was anxious over excited…he would contain his nerves to the best of his ability at least for now.

The older man couldn't help but snort, "Harry, there'll be no need for that. Adrian will be fine."

"Um…alright, Mr. Adrian."

Lord Greengrass had to stop himself from sighing, he supposed that would do for now, he didn't know what about him was making Harry so uncomfortable, but he was determined to get to the bottom of it somehow, was it the contracts or could it potentially be something far more sinister?

Only time would tell, for now, he had a job to do.

"Did you manage to get here alright? Last I heard you lived with Muggles."

"Yeah, I do." Harry said, not really wanting to say much at least initially, this situation was nerve-wracking at the best.

Adrian hadn't figured that it would be so hard to get the kid to open up, but he knew there must be a reason for it at least, it would only serve to give Adrian more determination to find out the truth about Harry Potter.

"Well, I think we've kept them waiting long enough, haven't we?"

"I suppose so," Harry's voice sounded a lot more confident than he felt in that moment, he was expecting the worst right from the get go.

As Adrian led him through the Platform, the elder managed to subconsciously show Harry how to navigate the copious amounts of people with ease, Harry also noted that they were moving in such a way that it was making it less obvious that it was him. Perhaps the absence of the Weasleys was causing this as well, but Harry didn't mind. He was happier knowing that people weren't gawking at him before he even boarded the Hogwarts Express for School.

"He agreed to meet with me," Adrian stated, guiding Harry closer to the assembled group.

"Yes, we can see that dear, just introduce us."

"Right," The Lord Greengrass continued, laughing sheepishly at the same time, "Well Harry, first off this is my wife, Lady Aurora Greengrass."

Aurora was a tall woman, slightly shorter than her husband, she had dark, almost black hair and in contrast her eyes were a striking icy blue. The witch was dressed in a set of robes coloured in silver with emerald trimmings, she looked the part of a Lady of a Most Ancient and Most Noble Family, at least Harry thought as much. Their dress almost reminded him of the Malfoys…but he could sense almost none of the arrogance that Draco and his family usually carried within themselves.

"Next up is the Lord Chadwin Davis."

Chadwin was a shorter man than the other, with messy brown hair and dark chocolate coloured eyes. He was dressed in a rather sharp looking business suit, strangely enough Chadwin carried himself without an air of superiority as was, much to the latter's bewilderment, smiling in the last Potter's direction.  
"It's wonderful to finally meet you in person, Harry."

Ignoring a few stares that he got from other people that he knew around the platform, Chadwin approached the younger male and extended his hand.

Harry was uncertain for a moment, then something in his mind pressed him forward, much like with Adrian there was a sense of unease there, but Harry felt like he could trust the Lord Davis as well as Lord Greengrass. So he shook the older man's hand, still not trusting himself to display any sort of emotion whatsoever.

"I like him," another voice said, a brilliant smile upon the woman's pale features, "Not going to wait for these two to introduce me either, I'm Lady Anabelle Davis."

She approached Harry and shook his hand right after her husband had, she was a fair-skinned woman with auburn hair and bright, hazel eyes. There was also a little twinkle to them, almost like Dumbledore's…but it seemed to be more mischievous than Dumbledore's version usually was.

"Alright, now that the adults are out of the way," Adrian chuckled, turning to the three witches beside him. When he first saw the trio of witches, it took all of Harry's strength to keep his jaw from falling open. _Ron was right! He had to marry a bunch of Slimy Snakes! Ones from Parkinson's little cheerlead Malfoy squad too if he wasn't mistaken! Wait come to think of it, he hadn't really seen these girls with Parkinson before…maybe, just maybe this wouldn't be as terrible as it looked._

Noticing Harry's distrusting expression rather quickly, Daphne quickly put her Ice-Queen façade up, knowing that there was a lot of work to be done if she was going to prove to him that she was definitely not associated with Draco Malfoy on any level.

"I'm Daphne Greengrass, I'm in your year but you probably never noticed."

Even though she spoke coldly, Harry felt the stirring of something around the pit of his stomach, he had to admit that she was slightly attractive, even if she was a snake. Daphne was of average height with crystalline blue eyes and bright platinum blond hair a few tones lighter than her father's hair. She was already dressed in Hogwarts Robes with the Slytherin Crest emblazoned on the right-hand side of the top.

"I'm her younger sister, Astoria Greengrass."

While she was as good-looking as her sister, it was in a completely different way, Astoria had the same shade of brown hair as her mother, but the bright, azure eyes of her father. It was a strange combination that seemed to work exceptionally well. Like Daphne, Astoria was already dressed in her Slytherin School Robes.

The final girl, also already dressed in her Slytherin robes, was a girl slightly shorter than Daphne with the same Auburn hair as her mother and the same strange hazel eyes as her as well. Just like the two before her, Harry could tell that she was rather good-looking, he was surprised he hadn't met them properly before, but Slytherin and Gryffindor didn't usually associate unless they absolutely have to.

"And I am Tracey Davis," the girl finished.

"It's er nice? To meet you all…I'm Harry Potter."

"We know that," Daphne said coldly, "We know you are contracted to us too."

Without another word, Daphne turned on heel and stalked onto the train, Astoria and Tracey following as soon as they got the gist of Harry's train of thought too. The disgusted looks that he'd put across seeing their Slytherin Uniform was enough to tell them all they needed to know about him.

"W..what did I do?" Harry said, by this point he was absolutely confused. Had he done something to potentially offend his new betrotheds already? It hadn't even been five minutes since he'd met them all? This was all too much of a mess, he needed a chance to think and maybe talk to Ron and Hermione about what happened, at least Ron would be happy about being right, though he would commiserate with Harry and the two could have a good venting session. Before any of the adults could answer his question, Harry turned on heel and walked in the opposite direction the girls had gone, heading off to find The Weasleys and Hermione.

Adrian heaved a sigh, "That went well."

"You don't have to be so sarcastic about it, Adrian. You can't have seriously expected them to fall madly in love with each other the moment they met. That's insanity."

"They weren't even civil, not really," Aurora said, "I mean as soon as Daphne got the gist of what Harry was doing, she immediately went to Ice Queen mode."

"Ice Queen mode?" Anabelle asked.

"It's a sort of defence mechanism that she put together when she was sorted into Slytherin to protect herself from the rest of the house, Slytherin, as you know, doesn't take kindly to people who don't fit in with all their blood purity ideologies."

"And I think the girls were offended," Chadwin put in, "because as soon as Harry saw the symbol of a serpent on their robes, he switched off, like he was looking at someone who'd snapped his broom."

"He did look rather furious," Adrian agreed, then he whistled lowly, "Wait until he finds out he has to share a common room with him, I bet it's only going to get worse from here."

"We shouldn't have had to put them in a single common room together," Anabelle commiserated with one of her oldest friends, "but unfortunately the risk of the kinds of enemies this union makes left us with no alternative. I just hope Harry's temper isn't as bad as the rumours say it is."

x-x-x-x

Harry stepped onto the train at the other end, hoping to avoid his new betrotheds completely, he'd met up with Mr and Mrs Weasley on the platform and said his goodbyes while being informed that Ron and Hermione had already gone looking for a compartment so that he could join them when he was finished with whatever he had to do.

After thanking them once more, Harry headed down the train, looking into the compartments both left and right, until he saw them. His two best friends were sitting on opposite sides of the compartment to each other and beside Ron was a man who looked as though he was at least four times to old to be a student here.

"Who's that?" Harry asked, falling into a seat beside Hermione.

"Professor R.J Lupin."

"How do you-?" he quickly cut himself off, turning to Harry, "How is it that she knows everything?"

Hermione sighed exasperatedly and pointed her finger in the direction of the man's suitcase, "It's on his case, Ronald."

"Oh, right."

"Anyway, how did your meeting with the families go?" Hermione inquired.

"It went…exactly as Ron said it would."

"What!? I was right for once?"

"Yeah, all three of my betrotheds are snakes, slimy freaking snakes."

"Oh, come off it Harry, I'm sure they aren't as bad as Malfoy," Hermione said in way of admonishing her friend, "Not everyone in Slytherin is about blood purity. Maybe you should give them a chance?"

"Yeah, he'll give them a chance, a fat chance of that happening," Ron jumped in.

Harry snorted at Ron's joke, "Yeah, I'm going with Ron on this one Hermione. I mean Slytherin house is where Voldemort was sorted. Anyone from there has to be bad news."

Hermione let out an angry hiss, "You're not being very mature about this, Harry!"

"Oh yes, because It's completely normal for a thirteen-year-old to be wound up in a marriage contract!" Harry snapped back, then retracted himself, "Sorry I didn't mean to go off."

"It's alright Harry, at least consider that they might not be as bad as you're making them out to be."

x-x-x-x

"Damn that Potter," Daphne snarled, slamming the compartment door behind her, then dumping herself into the seat closest to the window, "As soon as he saw the damn Slytherin robes, he didn't even want a bar of us."

"Gryffindors aren't as good and noble as they like everyone to believe, they can be just as, if not more judgemental than our own house. Besides, Malfoy hasn't really done Harry any favours in the co-existing with Slytherin department," Tracey said in response to her friend's anger.

"Aren't you even hurt or bothered that he automatically lumped us in the same category as that blond tosser, before we even said two words?" Astoria practically growled.

"Tori…" Daphne said softly, reaching for her sister's shoulder, and Astoria relented, leaning her head on Daphne's shoulder, releasing a soft sigh.

"Mum and dad said that we were friends with him when we were really small…how come it can't go back to at least being that?"

Daphne was surprised, she wasn't expecting Astoria to be as cut up about this as she was and Potter had already hurt her in the first five minutes of knowing her, she was going to give that boy a piece of her mind as soon as she got the opportunity to.

"No," Tracey said, shaking her head, "It can't. We were all babies at that point. It must become a new sort of friendship. One that will not be bound by the likes of the rest of our house. We must show him that we're not the same as the rest. I know we shouldn't have to, but unless we do…then…he's going to have no example and by hexing him it just proves in his eyes that we're nothing more than Slytherin drones raised to be dark and hurt everyone."

"And how do you suggest we even get close enough to do that?" Daphne shot back icily.

"I have a feeling that it's all going to work out in our favour. I don't know why, but mum said something to me about it, not specifics…but there's going to be a real chance that we're going to get closer to him this year."

"We'll work at it," Daphne promised her younger sister, stroking her hair softly, "I promise you that before the year is up that he will be in our lives…and not in a negative way. I…I don't remember much of it because we were so young, but…a small part of me misses him too."

"I'm sure we can get it all straightened out," Tracey assured her two friends, "I mean if he's going to throw everyone he doesn't know in the same boat as Malfoy, then he's going to be getting himself nowhere, especially considering that those two are eventually going to have to let bygones be bygones."

"I am not looking forward to the day both of them come to that realization," Astoria put in.

"Join the club," Daphne added bitterly.

x-x-x-x-x

Nymphadora Tonks had always hated her first name and insisted that everyone either use her last name or just called her Dora. The only people who got away with using anything else was her mother, because she couldn't change her mind no matter what she tried anyway and the families she'd been close to when she was younger, whom started to call her 'Nym' which Harry Potter had come up with the first time they'd met when James and Sirius were trying to teach him her first name so that there was someone young enough so she'd have to hear it all the time. The plan had ultimately backfired, mainly because Harry couldn't say her full name at one year old and it'd become 'Nym' and from then on, the name sort of just stuck with her. She'd just finished her first year of Auror training at the end of the usual summer for Hogwarts students and had since been granted a little time off before her first mission…which would arrive today.

"Nymphadora?"

"Yes mum?" Tonks called back in response, her dark hair immediately gaining tones of purple into it, she didn't have full control of the changes at times, especially when she got excited.

"A letter came for you, it's got the ministry seal on it."

A Ministry Seal? It had to be her first mission! The woman rushed off from the seat she'd lowered herself into and smacked into the side of the wall, sliding into position at her mother's feet.

"Really my dear, do try to control that."

"I will, but mum I want to read what the Ministry sent me to do."

Andromeda nodded, then handed her daughter the Ministry-Sealed envelope. Tonks repositioned herself on the floor, but didn't even bother getting back to her feet, she was excited more than anything else and wanted to know what kind of dark wizard she'd be hunting for her first outing.

 _ **Auror Tonks,**_

 _ **First of all welcome to The Ministry's Auror Division, we are pleased to have such a decorated student of Hogwarts join our ranks. Given the way that you handled the training programme we gave you a few weeks off in order to ease you into the role of an Auror. Upon the previous night we have also come to realize that you have also been named as part of a betrothal contract that has now been made active, a contract crafted by Lord Potter and Lord Black twelve and a half years ago. While this contract does not prevent you from being an Auror, we would like to place you as Hogwarts' new Chief Security Auror Officer, where you will be working alongside long-time veteran Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt to ensure the safety of the students in regards to escaped convict Sirius Black, this will also give you a chance to better acquaint yourself with your betrothed, Lord Hadrian James Potter Emrys Peverell.**_

 _ **Dumbledore was hesitant at first to take Aurors and Dementors, but after we explained the situation he was more than happy to bring you aboard.**_

 _ **You may ride the Hogwarts Express or organise alternative arrangements for your arrival at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry on the First of September.**_

 _ **Good Luck, Auror Tonks.**_

 _ **Something tells me you'll need it.**_

 _ **Amelia Bones**_

 _ **Head of The Department for Magical Law Enforcement.**_

To say Tonks was shocked by this development would be the understatement of a century, her eyes had gone as wide as saucers and her jaw had dropped open, her first job as an Auror was to be in _charge_ of a major mission to keep Hogwarts safe from the escaped murderer, Sirius Black!? She was betrothed to Harry!?

"Nymphadora what is it?"

Tonks wordlessly shoved the letter into her mother's hands. Andromeda took a few moments, clearly reading it back to herself at least three times, then she placed the letter down on the table and looked back to her only child.

"You do realize that Harry won't remember you, don't you?"

Tonks nodded sadly, "He's not going to, he was only one at the time, then because of the situation that Bagnold put him in, I didn't get to see him ever again which means that he'll have no memories of me."

"I am sure you can fix that, for now, we should get you ready for your important mission, shouldn't we?"

 _ **End Chapter**_

 _ **Nox!**_


	9. The Truth Comes Out

_**Lumos!**_

 _ **Disclaimer: Don't own Harry Potter or anything associated.**_

CHAPTER NINE: THE TRUTH COMES OUT

"Why are we stopping?" Hermione suddenly asked, "We can't be there yet, it's too early."

"Dunno," Harry said with a shrug.

"Does anyone else feel how cold it's getting in here?" Ron added.

Harry nodded, rubbing his hands together, trying to generate warmth in his body.

Ron had already turned out the window to try and see what was going on, his hand resting on the cool glass of the compartment window, "there's something moving out there."

At that moment, the lights in the compartment went out and the three best friends looked between each other nervously. This didn't look good in any sense of the word.

Before Harry could fully realize what was happening, the compartment door had already slipped open by means of a large, ugly-looking skeletal hand. The last Potter's eyes widened, he found himself freezing up and unable to move. His eyes locked upon the figure. The figure itself was a huge spectral type being completely concealed in a black cloak.

' _Harry!'_

Harry Potter's eyes snapped open and he looked around the compartment, Ron and Hermione looked equally shaken up, but that's not what truly intrigued him. The man supposedly known as 'Professor RJ Lupin' was wide awake and had extended a bar of Honeydukes finest chocolate in Harry's direction.

"Eat," he said without waiting for Harry to answer.

Harry took the chocolate timidly, then pulled himself back into a seated position.

"What was that?" he asked Lupin.

"That was a dementor. One of the guards of Azkaban Prison, I believe it must have been searching the train for Sirius Black, now if you'll excuse me I need to have a little word with the driver."

Lupin got up from his seat, then approached the compartment door to leave, before he turned back to Harry, "I haven't poisoned that, you know?"

Then he was gone. Harry gingerly rose the chocolate to his lips and took a small bite and was immediately grateful for the feeling of warmth which rushed through his entire body.

"Did you guys hear her?"

"Hear who mate?"

"A woman, she was screaming."

"No one was screaming Harry," Hermione said, her voice laced with concern.

"We thought you might've had a fit or something," Ron cut in before Hermione could stop him, "I felt weird too though, almost like I'd never be cheerful again."

Both Harry and Ron looked over at Hermione expectantly.

"You can't expect me to have the answers all the time you two," Hermione said indignantly, "I've never seen one of those before either."

"We were kind of hoping you'd read about them," Ron said in his best Hermione voice.

Hermione let out a huff, but she pressed on anyway, "Well it's not in any of the books that I've read, considering how dark that creature is likely to be, I'd say we'll cover it in later Hogwarts years. Or the information about it is concealed in the restricted section."

"Maybe Professor Lupin knows more about these Dementors," Harry said, "I bet he's our Defence Professor this year and by the sounds of it he won't be a hopeless case like Quirrell or Lockhart."

"Here's hoping," Hermione and Ron said darkly.

Before too long, The Hogwarts Express was on the move again and Harry fell into an uneasy silence, the woman screaming…what if these Dementors were able to somehow make him relive his parents' deaths? It wasn't entirely impossible, and it would make sense as to why everyone who spoke of the prison was more than a little shaken up about the whole thing. These creatures…could they force someone to relive their worst experiences? He definitely had enough evidence of that seeing as how Ron had said the creature made him feel like he'd never be cheerful again…It wasn't just their worst experiences, these creatures must've fed on happiness!

"I think I understand…"

"What Harry?" Hermione probed.

"The Dementors, they make people relive their worst experiences and suck all of the happiness out of them…in preparation for something, but I don't quite know what exactly."

Hermione did look slightly put out that Harry had worked it out so quickly on his own, but Ron looked proud that his best-friend had done so.

"I can't believe you worked that out so quickly!" Ron sad excitedly, "Well…this poses problems though…"

"The Dementors are going to be stationed around Hogwarts to try and capture Sirius Black," Hermione sighed, "It already sounds like it's going to be a miserable year."

"Miss Granger, not looking forward to school already? That's a new one."

"Oh shush, Harry. You know what I mean."

"I bet that Lupin's classes will be interesting at least. Ten bets says that Snape is still as useless as he was last year."

"Dually noted," Harry and Hermione backed him up as the trio began to gather their things, the lights of Hogsmeade Station coming into view gradually, the three of them having already changed into their robes earlier.

"Well, hopefully, despite the Dementors we're going to have a somewhat quieter year this year."

Harry scratched behind Midnight's ears, "With all those marriage contract betrotheds to deal with, I hardly think this is going to qualify as a 'somewhat quieter year' Ron, I'm still as royally screwed as I have been every other year, except this time I couldn't escape even if I tried."

"I mean, it won't be that bad…we don't even have to see them apart from any classes we share with the Slytherins."

"A small blessing," Harry agreed.

"You _both_ need to grow up!" Hermione suddenly snapped, "You are putting those girls into the same category as Malfoy without even giving them a chance."

"They're _Slytherin_ Hermione," Harry retorted as Ron nodded empathetically, "Dark wizard breeding ground."

"Bad news, the lot of them," Ron agreed.

"I stand beside my earlier statement," Hermione snapped, stalking out of the compartment as soon as the train stopped, leaving the two boys in her wake without even turning back.

"What's her issue?" Ron asked his best-friend.

Harry shrugged, "Women."

"Never will understand em," Ron agreed, "Come on, we don't want to miss the carriages."

"Good point, actually speaking of Slytherins, I'm surprised we haven't actually run into Malfoy yet, he's usually jumping at the chance to make fun of us."

"Maybe he didn't make it on the train," Ron said hopefully.

"Maybe he got injured," Harry said off-handedly.

"I'm surprised Harry."

"Why's that Ron?"

"I mean, usually you don't just lump people into one category? So why now?"

Harry looked at him as if he'd grown an extra head, "Ron. Last year, the Slytherins did all sorts of horrible things to us, Malfoy even called Hermione a you-know-what and all his supposed 'different' house-mates did was laugh. I'm done playing nice guy."

"Well, Hermione seemed to have not held it against them."

"Yeah, but Hermione likes giving people second chances," Here, he decided to give Ron a pointed look, "We're probably in deep trouble from her right now because she somehow thinks I should open myself up to it which is…not going to happen any time soon. But, if I so much as hear about you giving her any trouble this year, our friendship be damned, I will hex you into next week."

"Harry, what do you mean by that?"

"I've come to think of Hermione as a sister, as much as I view your family as my own, so don't squander that alright?"

"Got it."

The two shared another curt nod, then disembarked the train. They walked along the path up to the carriages together, Harry listening to a little more of Ron's stories about Egypt and Harry felt strongly that he wanted to visit the nation as soon as he got an opportunity, especially since Ron's eldest brother sounded like the sort of person he wanted to know.

"Do you think it might be a good idea to ask Bill on the quiet about you know what since Hermione isn't talking to us?"

"It would be worth looking into," Harry agreed, "But we need to keep it on the down-low Ron, I don't know which ears within this castle are safe and I definitely don't want Malfoy knowing about it unless he absolutely has to."

"Fair call."

Seeing a huge man guiding the first years to their boats, Harry and Ron made sure to catch the half-giant's eye and raise hands in greeting. Hagrid beamed upon seeing his young friends and waved out in return.

"Make sure yehr not la' again you two!"

Laughing at the big grin on their friends face, Harry and Ron quickly got into a carriage without bothering to check who was inside first.

"Hello Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley."

Ron's ears turned red at the use of his first name, Harry merely shrugged. He was used to this by now. He jabbed Ron as if silently warning him to be polite.

"Er, Hi."

Harry rolled his eyes, some things would never change.

"Hi there, you seem to know our names, could you please tell us yours?"

The girl seemed surprised that Harry asked, but she nodded, "I'm Luna Lovegood of Ravenclaw House and a friend of Ginny's."

"Oh, it's err nice to meet you."

"And you as well."

"I know why you'll know Harry's name, but how come you know mine?"

"Oh, that's simple," Luna said as if it were the most basic thing in the entire universe, "We have a betrothal contract."

Ron's jaw dropped, "WE'VE GOT A WHAT!?"

Harry quickly covered his ears, not wanting to catch the brunt of Ron's exclamation, being right beside him and all.

"I'm surprised no one told you," Luna said with a shrug, "Then, seeing Harry's reaction at the Platform this morning and the way you reacted just now I'm really not."

Harry was pretty sure that he could hear the hurt tone in Luna's voice.

"Well, I…I apologize for the outburst."

Harry's jaw dropped, he looked like a fish out of water as he looked between both Ron and Luna.

Ron laughed at his friend's expense, "Sorry Harry."

"You know if you keep your mouth open like that, you're going to catch wrackspurts."

"I'm going to-never mind."

Ron smiled, leaning back in his seat.

"Hey Ron?" Harry hissed into his best-friend's ear while Luna was busy reading some kind of upside down magazine named 'The Quibbler'. The last Potter's emerald eyes were alight with curiosity, "How come you don't seem extremely pissed off right now? I mean _no one_ told you about the contract."

"Because," Ron lowered his voice, his brown eyes suddenly becoming very serious, "It just gave me all the evidence we need."

"Evidence? For What?"

Ron sighed, "Don't you find it strange that you know all about your marriage contracts and I don't know about mine? Or how you seemed to get a letter from Gringotts explaining this to you, but I didn't?"

Harry shrugged, not really knowing where Ron was trying to go with this.

"And how, the only reason you found out was because the Goblins send it to you while you were in London as opposed to when you were at Privet Drive?"

"Dumbledore…" Harry muttered.

"Exactly, he's hiding stuff from us Harry."

"But then, why didn't you get your Gringotts letter for an appointment when we were in London?"

"Because, Dumbledore knew that we were going to stop by the Leaky Cauldron before going back to Hogwarts rather than going all the way back to the Burrow."

"And he didn't pick up that I was there as well? Seems unlikely," Harry said, absentmindedly stroking Midnight's fur as he did so.

"It's to do with him," Luna suddenly said from her seat, without looking away from her Quibbler Magazine, "The Weretiger, or _Lacaria Zolen,_ as they're actually known. His special ability is to block out any magical receptors from finding his master, they are adept at stealth and require their masters to be as equally so to avoid certain dangers with the type of wizards they tend to bond with."

"So…"

"We need to keep our distance from Dumbledore this year Harry, something's not right. I know you told me that the Ministry can't be trusted after what you found in your parents' will, but I seriously doubt it would've taken the supposed "Greatest Wizard of Our Generation" ten bloody years to find out where you were. We need to keep our distance, at least until he can prove that he deserves our trust."

"Okay…how did you get so smart?"

"I…I don't know," Ron answered, completely flabbergasted by the turn of events.

"Maybe someone has been tampering with your minds," Luna said off-handedly.

Harry and Ron blanched.

 _ **END CHAPTER.**_

 _ **Yes, I know it will be an unpopular opinion of having Ron almost match up to Harry in terms of intelligence and what-not, but I see so many stories where Ron is bashed and I don't care for it. I actually like him despite his flaws, it's what makes him a good character. If you want to see Ron-bashing, then this is NOT the story for you.**_

 _ **There will be light Dumbles! Bashing until this version of him can prove to the boys that he is trustworthy, but whoops looks like Nick might've been to late to undo all of the damage Albus has done over the years.**_

 _ **Yes, The Slytherin bits with Harry being as equally prejudiced as Ron is has been happening for a reason, I won't go too much into it now, but Second Year hit Harry harder than what was presented in canon. He will eventually get over it, as will Ron.**_

 _ **Next Chapter: Ron and Harry learn of their new living arrangements among other things.**_

 _ **Please Read and Review.**_

 _ **As always Flames will be ignored.**_

 _ **Nox!**_


	10. The Wing Of Contracts

Disclaimer: Don't own Harry Potter or anything associated with it whatsoever.

CHAPTER TEN: WING OF CONTRACTS

Dumbledore stepped forward onto the Podium and smiled, "Welcome to Hogwarts, Now as always, we must begin with some start of term notices, first off the Forbidden Forest is for all intents and purposes forbidden, some of older students ought to remember that as well."

Here, Dumbledore paused to look directly at Fred and George Weasley who just smirked back at him.

"And we have three new Professors this year. First, taking up the post of Defence Against the Dark Arts is Professor Lupin."

Lupin stood and bowed his head, the students amassed in the Great Hall all clapped excitedly, minus the Slytherin table, who just glared at the Professor.

"And Professor Flamel, who will be taking over the post of Ancient Runes seeing as our former teacher, Professor Babbling has decided to take a year off to better tend to her health, but Professor Flamel has decided to teach Runes a little differently in previous years and now the class will be called Applied Runes: Alchemy."

"I'm so glad we switched," Harry hissed to Ron, "That looks like it's going to be interesting."

"Wait, did Dumbledore just say Flamel?" Ron hissed back, while the two joined in the applause for the new Professor.

"You don't think that he's actually?"

"Dunno, maybe a relative, especially since you were told that the stone was destroyed, so it couldn't _actually_ be Flamel at the very least."

"Suppose time will tell," Harry answered.

"Hey, Potter!" someone hissed from behind him.

Harry turned around to see the one person he wanted to see least right now, Draco Malfoy.

"Is it true you fainted? I mean you actually fainted?"

"Shove off Malfoy!" Ron exclaimed, pulling Harry back to facing the Gryffindor table properly again.

"How did he find out?"

"Bet someone overheard Professor Lupin talking to the driver," Ron divulged, "Wouldn't surprise me if it was one of that lot you met this morning."

"Wouldn't surprise me either," Harry said with a snort.

"Our Former Care of Magical Creatures Professor has decided to retire in order to spend time with his remaining limbs, but I am pleased to announce that the position has been claimed by none other than our own, Rubeus Hagrid."

Hagrid received the loudest cheering and applause of the night and Dumbledore graciously allowed for the time Hagrid deserved before pressing onward, "Finally on a more disquieting note. The Ministry of Magic has decided that until further notice Hogwarts shall play host to The Dementors of Azkaban Prison and a team of Aurors until such a time as Sirius Black has been captured. Whilst I am assured that their presence will not disturb our day-to-day activities, I must warn you not to give a Dementor the opportunity to cause you harm, they do not distinguish between the one they hunt and the one that gets in their way. That's all for tonight, off to bed pip pip."

Harry and Ron stood, excited to be finally able to go into the Gryffindor Common Room and relax before heading to bed, were shocked to instead see Professor McGonagall and one of the Aurors walking towards them. The Auror was a woman of average height with shoulder-length fluorescent pink hair and vibrant blue eyes.

"Wotcher, Harry," she said happily.

Harry and Ron sighed at the precise same moment.

"Potter, Weasley? Why the great sighs?" McGonagall asked the two.

"How are we in trouble already? I mean we didn't even fly a car here this year."

"You are not in trouble…yet," McGonagall said, making sure to add in the after-thought, she knew these two exceptionally well after all, and before the end of the year she had no doubt that they would find a way to get themselves into major hot water.

"Then…what's the problem?" Harry asked from beside Ron.

"Due to the nature of the Marriage Contracts that the two of you have received you will be in a special common room and wing dedicated for these kind of arrangements."

Both Harry and Ron looked absolutely affronted.

"Don't worry, you do not have to share a bed with them," McGonagall assured upon seeing their expressions, "But it is to help you all become more acquainted with each other as it were."

"In fact, you're looking at one of your betrotheds right now," Tonks said directly to Harry, giving him a wink for good measure.

"Y..you're the Black Family candidate?"

"Candidate?" Tonks snorted, "Yes. I'm totally a candidate. I'm your fiancée or whatever you want to call it, so you'd better get used to it."

Harry's expression told the entire story.

Tonks tried to hide the sadness she felt, she knew that he wouldn't remember her, but it was a little bit more painful to see it happening in person, hopefully she'd be able to jog his memory in a little while.

"Usually I'd be staying in the special Auror wing for whenever we have to carry out missions, but I've decided for the purpose of getting to know you that I'll be staying in this 'Wing of Contracts' with you two and everyone else."

"Well, this is going to be fun," said Harry sarcastically.

"You said it, brother." Ron responded in kind.

"At least you've only got one to handle," Harry hissed lowly so that only Ron could hear him.

"When you two are finished?" McGonagall interrupted, "We will go and deliver you to the new common room."

Harry and Ron resigned themselves to their fate, knowing that they didn't really have any way out of this one. They followed McGonagall and Auror Tonks away from The Great Hall and up to the Grand Staircase via the Entrance Hall, Harry and Ron were surprised that they'd managed to get everywhere they needed to get through the Castle without getting lost minus that one time on their very first day they had arrived.

The odd thing was, the slower that the two of them tried to go, the faster the distance between them and this mysterious common room they were going to fell away from them, it was as if the castle subconsciously knew that they were trying to avoid their fates. McGonagall stopped outside a slant of wall on the third floor that Harry vaguely remembered was near where the trio had first met Fluffy two years ago.

"Veneral."

The slab of concrete shuddered at the mention of the password, then it slowly slid open, a low rumbling cascading throughout the area. The slab of wall moving aside revealed a small tunnel-like opening that Tonks took great pleasure in pushing Harry and Ron into, the kitten on Harry's shoulder emitting a hiss in Tonks' direction made her back off a little.

"Welcome to your home for the duration of your schooling," McGonagall said stately, "remember that whilst I cannot monitor you in here, any hexing or magical or muggle threats will be taken seriously and I shall have Auror Tonks deal with it as she feels necessary."

Harry and Ron both nodded mutely, not wanting to add to the frustration they felt in a situation like this, forced to be separated from their room-mates and tossed into the deep end with a bunch of Slytherins, this was not how they pictured their year going at all. Yet, Harry silently thought that it was their own fault, fate seemed to like being contradictory with Harry's life and each year he'd always wished for a normal one.

"Very well, I must leave now, but I shall see in you in classes Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley."

That was the Transfiguration Professor's final word evidently and Harry and Ron were left wondering how they should approach this. They just hoped the Professor's had thought enough to have separate dormitories…they were still young after all. As if noticing their horrified expressions Tonks chuckled, more to herself than anything else.

"Don't worry, you've got separate dorms at least this year, Lord Greengrass felt that it would be better that way at least in the initial stages, to prevent murder."

"He had a suspicion that it wouldn't go well?" Ron asked the Auror curiously.

"Adrian was a student at Hogwarts, one of the best in his time, the animosity between houses was especially strong when he attended, it was right at the point of Voldemort's initial ascension."

Ron flinched at the name, but Harry barely reacted to hearing it.

"Your stuff's already been brought up by the way," Tonks continued before she could be interrupted by either boy, "You'll want to be getting some rest, right?"

"Not quite yet," Harry stated, "But I'll go and see the dorm either way. Good night, Auror Tonks."

"No need for the officialities, I'm betrothed to you after all," Tonks said, trying not to smirk.

"Right..er, Night Tonks."

Harry turned on heel and practically bolted out of the new common room.

Ron sighed, he was going to have to talk to Harry, being betrothed wasn't a completely bad thing, well not to Tonks at least, The Slytherins were another matter entirely, Ron was also going to need to put some plans in place to try and find out what Dumbledore was up to where the two of them were concerned.

He didn't want to be as close to the other students as he'd always wanted to be with Harry and to some extent, himself. Something wasn't right there…and Ronald Weasley was determined to uncover the truth.

The red-haired boy turned his attention to a small kitten bundled up on the top of the sofa. Ron chuckled softly, "Midnight seems to be enjoying himself at least, good night Auror Tonks."

Tonks sighed, she was going to have to work on these boys, that was for sure. Ron was pretty much her brother-in-law in all but blood now that she was betrothed to his best-friend and she didn't think she could stand being called Auror Tonks all the damned time.

Ron turned on heel and followed Harry into their dormitory, then flopped down on the end of his new bed, "So what do you make of all this?"

"It's concerning," Harry said without thinking, "All these marriage contracts just popping up out of nowhere…and I'm not sure that I like the idea either."

"It could be worse," Ron told him, "Minus the whole Slytherin thing."

"I don't know how it could be worse Ron."

"You could be betrothed to Malfoy."

"Fair point," Harry agreed.

"But you might as well get used to it, knowing you, you'll get a letter saying that the Goblins missed a contract and you're actually betrothed to five girls."

Harry cut Ron off with a sharp glare aimed at his best-friend, but he didn't comment.

x-x-x-x-

At Breakfast the next morning, Harry and Ron entered chatting excitedly about what they could possibly expect in Professor Flamel's first lesson which was their first class of the year, the two of them had been quietly looking forward to it since Dumbledore had announced the new Professor. They'd originally intended to take Divination since it seemed like it would be an easy grade, but they decided that since it was likely for the two of them to be faced with an incident similar to the Chamber again, they wanted to make sure that they were making the best of the opportunities they had while they could.

"He'll probably start small," Harry told Ron as the two of them sat down at the Gryffindor table.

"We're only third years just starting out the class and he'll want to weed out the ones who have the aptitude for it and those that don't."

"Do mine ears deceive me Fred?"

"I think they must have, George, Ickle Ronniekins is talking about a school lesson with a sense of interest!"

Ron's ears turned crimson and he spun on his twin right as Hedwig flew along with other owls for the morning post and dropped a letter at Harry's position. His name was emblazoned across the front of the letter. Harry was left mystified…he never got any sort of letter from anyone.

He peeled the envelope open and extracted the letter from within the envelope and gasped, before spinning on Ron a glare of intensity aimed his way.

"What? What'd I do?"

" _You just had to open your mouth, didn't you?"_

"Harry, what're you talking about?" Ron returned, genuinely confused.

Unable to speak, Harry just thrust the letter into his best-friend's grip.

 _ **Dear Lord Potter-Emrys-Peverell-Slytherin-Gryffindor**_

 _ **Heir to House Flamel**_

 _ **Due to some digging we have done thanks to the power restored to us over the Potter accounts upon your return we have discovered that you are descended from two of The Hogwarts Founders, Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin. We do not know what this will entail upon your return to Hogwarts, but it does add another two vaults and Gryffindor Castle, along with a few properties with the Slytherin line to your list of inherited properties…unfortunately Mr. Potter it is our duty to inform you that this inheritance also comes with another Marriage Contract from both families.**_

 _ **We are finding out more about these two contracts as you read this letter, but we believe they are as Iron-Clad as the previous four but was made several centuries ago and there has not been a significant pair to continue these contracts through until now.**_

 _ **May your gold ever flow, and your enemies die by your dagger's tip.**_

 _ **Gringotts Account Manager**_

 _ **Graplock**_

"Harry…I'm sorry mate, I didn't know me actually making a joke would jinx it."

"Well, you do now!" Harry sighed, then raked a hand through his hair, "I'm sorry Ron, it's not your fault."

Fred chuckled, then in his best tone of Professor Dumbledore that he could muster he spoke, "Harry your anger might be a little untamed dear boy."

Harry resisted the strong urge to roll his eyes that he had, but he forced himself to at least try and eat something. He'd need it for their classes today after all. Laughing amongst themselves Fred and George continued down the hall to grab seats at the Gryffindor table. Harry sought out Hermione, hoping to some extent that he could have his other best-friend back, but it seemed that she was occupied with a very animated, it seemed, conversation, with Neville Longbottom. Well, if she wanted to be immature about things, then he was going to wait until she was ready to apologize for storming off like that.

"I'm surprised, Harry," Ron finally said.

"Why's that?"

"Well, it's just…they mentioned two mores marriage contracts, but they didn't tell you which of the families they were made with."

"Would that have made any difference to the fact that I'm in _another_ marriage contract!?"

"Well, no, but it might've been something to give you a little clarity in the situation."

"If it's another Slytherin I'll jump in for a swim with the giant squid," Harry said despondently.

x-x-x-x

"Good morning class, My name is Professor Nicholas Flamel. I have been a noted Alchemist for a good portion of the last century, but I would also like it noted that I am not as old-fashioned as some of the people within my role. Now, as Professor Babbling has decided to take annual leave, I'm going to be your Professor this year and then move into teaching Alchemy next year with the fourth years and above. After all, Runes are the basis for almost every Alchemic Equation in the world."

The Professor circled the front of the class as if pacing, a thoughtful expression forming on his pale features, "Now this year I want to discern if any of you possess a natural gift with Runes, the Alchemy class is a very advanced topic and I don't want anyone to come in without the proper skill to be able to handle it. I'm not trying to be rude…I just don't want to waste your time with it. Alchemy is a skill you either have or you don't. Some, with years of practice can make up for their lack of aptitude…but unfortunately it's a struggle that is best done post-schooling."

The grey-haired male leaned back onto his desk and smiled thoughtfully, then he turned to blackboard and waving his wand he drew a simple shape of a triangle that seemed to have formed from chalk that hadn't even been there, "Without opening your text books, can anyone tell me what this symbol is?"

"That's the Runic Depiction of Fire," Hermione's voice suddenly said throughout the class.

Harry and Ron turned to look at each other.

"When did she get here?"

Harry shrugged, before turning back to the lesson.

"Good work, Miss Granger, take ten points for Gryffindor, now who can tell me this one?"

Professor Flamel turned and waved his wand again, this time adding a small line to the top of the triangle that extended outward from it slightly, "Anyone?"

Harry took a moment to think about it, the answer coming to him naturally… the shape, everything about it could mean only one thing.

"That's the Runic Depiction of Air, isn't it?"

"Well done, Mr. Potter, yes that is the Rune for Air. Take ten points for Gryffindor as well. Now onto our final Runic Depiction."

Professor Flamel waved his wand at the chalkboard which in turn drew a blackened shape of a crescent moon.

"This one is more difficult…I hope that someone can hazard a guess…Mr. Weasley?"

Ron took a couple of seconds to think about it, but it suddenly hit him from nowhere, "Silver, Right?"

"Yes Mr. Weasley, have yourself ten points for Gryffindor too."

Nicholas wasn't surprised by Harry and Ron having the aptitude he discussed earlier, the two of them as Origin Mages had a natural affinity for the damned things, it was why Nicholas himself was so proficient in Alchemy to even brew an elixir of life. Origin mixed with Runes made for very powerful alchemy in any sense. He would definitely enjoy teaching these two.

"Okay now, our next thing to work on today is combining these symbols efficiently and discovering what they make."

"Mr. Potter could you come up here and show me how we would combine these?"

Harry approached the black-board and naturally he picked up on how to combine the three of them perfectly, he grabbed a piece of chalk that Professor Flamel had summoned, then below the original three symbols he drew the triangle for Air and added the line with a flourish at the end that completed the first section, next came another triangle connected to the first for fire and finally he drew a crescent moon at the top on its side for the Runic Depiction of Silver.

"Thinking outside the square, that's the showing of a natural Rune Wielder. Do you know what this has become Mr. Potter?"

Harry shook his head.

"If you'd used your wand and a special spell to draw this Runic Combination it would be known as Τελευταία προστασία or the Rune of ultimate protection. That Mr. Potter is how most homes are warded without the need for the Fidelius Charm. But it's a lot more ruthless than that. See, if someone were to enter the home and the Rune sensed that they would be a danger to the residents of the home forged through the bond of blood…the 'blood ward' would destroy the 'enemy' within three seconds of activation.

The Rune of Ultimate Protection, it seemed familiar to Harry somehow, as if he should know what this rune has to do with him on a personal level, but he couldn't place a finger on it for some reason.

"Take another twenty points, Mr. Potter," Flamel said, before turning to the rest of the class, "Alright…now our next topic is an essential aspect of Alchemy."

Harry returned to his seat, smiling some at the progress of the lesson.

Hermione on the other hand was more than surprised by the fact that both Harry and Ron seemed to have some strange natural affinity for this stuff. It was almost concerning…the two of them hadn't really shown much interest in classes before, what made that change all of a sudden?

She missed her two best-friends more than anything else in the world, but at the same time, she also realized that the two of them had a fair amount of growing up to do before she'd be able to handle being their friend again. Treating Daphne, Astoria and Tracey the way they had merely because they shared the same house as one Draco Malfoy was something that she couldn't agree with. She'd had more than a few conversations with Daphne and Tracey at least, Hermione knew by those conversations that the so-called Ice Queen of Slytherin and her best-friend were absolutely nothing like the usual Pureblood Bigots that came from their house. Harry and Ron were acting similarly to the very thing that they detested…which was a partial amount ironic but disgusting all the same.

How could they accuse Malfoy of being nothing more than an arrogant toe-rag who thought he was better than everyone else just because he was what wizarding society labelled a pure-blood, then go and do exactly the same bigoted things…just in a different tone? Hermione knew that they would have to grow up eventually and just hoped that it was the stress of the Marriage Contracts doing this, rather than it being their actual views… She didn't want to lose them. While hanging out with Neville was interesting, because she found that despite his habits of forgetfulness and often being regarded as someone with less intelligence, she also discovered that this wasn't actually true. He was on the intelligent side, but his lack of confidence, which also affected his memory some he was suffering. Hermione had made it her new goal to try and get Neville to reach his full potential. He needed friends as much as the rest of them did and hopefully when Harry and Ron pulled their heads out of their backsides she'd be able to slowly push Neville into the group with them.

Hermione didn't know why, she just felt that it was important for some reason.

"Combining the layers in the Runes and applying them to an Alchemic Solution to create something entirely new is a beautiful piece of magic, if one does it correctly then the results can be beautiful…get even one element wrong and those effects become…disastrous."

It was at that moment the bell chose to ring and Flamel smiled around at the class, "Well then my students, our time together today has passed. Since we are only in our first lesson I do not feel that it would be advisable to assign any homework until we delve deeper into the science that is Ancient Runes. I look forward to seeing you all in our next lesson. Class dismissed."

Harry and Ron left the classroom wearing broad grins, they stepped out onto the fifth floor and headed down the corridor, continuing to talk as they approached the grand staircase.

"Flamel is incredible!" Ron said, practically gushing with excitement, "really knows what he's talking about."

"Plus, his runes were so accurate," Harry agreed, "The natural way he drew them without even having to think. You can tell that he's been doing this for years!"

"And him complimenting us too! We should stay applied on this one Harry, there's no way we want to miss out on his Alchemy class next year."

"Definitely not, he's good at Runes from what we've seen today, but he's famous as an Alchemist. He'll have fountains of knowledge on the stuff which will help us in a big way in the long run. I know it's a bit early to think about careers, but it'll definitely be a skill that potential magical employers will love."

"I'd have to agree with that, who've we got next?"

Harry whipped out his time-table from the inside of his robes and released a groan.

"Don't tell me. Potions with Snape and The Slytherins."

"You guessed it."

"I'm so looking forward to it," Ron said sarcastically, "C'mon let's get down to the Dungeons. Rather not have Snape dock points since we worked so hard to earn them in Runes."

"Good point."

x-x-x-x

"Welcome," Snape began coldly, his voice echoing throughout the Potions lab in the dungeons, "To Third Year Potions. As you should know by now, there will be no foolish wand-waving in this class, no silly incantations. I still don't expect any of you to grasp the subtle art that is Potion-Making, but we shall see if even I can be surprised. Today we will be brewing a rather complicated Potion. It is known as an Antidote to Uncommon Poisons. Can anyone tell me what the central ingredient is used in this Potion?"

To Severus' surprise, Ron's hand was one of those that were raised, he showed none of this in his facial expression though, could it be that he actually knew something of this? He'd also remembered what he'd said earlier in the summer.

"Weasley?"

Ron took a deep breath, it was a wild guess and if he mucked it up, he was going to lose a lot of points for Gryffindor, "Is it Fire Seeds sir?"

"Fire Seeds, yes they are an important tool in the brewing of this potion. Five Points will be awarded to Gryffindor house."

Ron and Harry both stared at each other, slack-jawed.

Draco Malfoy was fuming, Snape awarding points to a Weasley? What was this world coming to? It'd gone to the dogs really, Dumbledore now had the great oaf Hagrid teaching classes. He turned his head slightly to see Daphne Greengrass and Tracey Davis both glaring at Potter with more intensity than usual. Had something happened there that he missed? He knew like most Slytherins that Daphne and Tracey had no desire to be even a little like the rest of them seeing as their families were considered to be two of the very few 'light-side' families that came out of Slytherin house. Then why were they both glaring at Potter as though they wanted to kill him, or similar?

"Very well, get on with it."

Snape turned on heel and went to his desk, he removed a book from the top of it and settled in to read.

Harry turned his head feeling eyes boring into the back of his skull, but when he saw the two behind the glares, he just made a sound like a huff and went back to brewing his potion with Ron. In the end without Snape breathing down their necks, Harry and Ron decided to not question his unusual attitude of the morning and produced an adequate potion which got them a combined ten points. It was unusually low for points but seeing as Snape had given them some for once, Harry and Ron weren't about to complain.

After being dismissed by Snape, the two of them headed up through the castle, their excitement quickly rushing up through their heads, only Transfiguration and Defence Against The Dark Arts were left and then they would be free for the day.

"Wonder what McGonagall's going to teach us."

"No idea," Harry said, "but if it's anything like our previous classes today we should be in for a big surprise."

"Definitely," Ron agreed.

"So where've you been hiding all this brain power huh?"

"Someone suggested to me that I should stop hiding it and maybe it'd show people that I can be recognized as an individual along with my siblings rather than just being the last Weasley kid. I took it to heart."

"Whoever told you that gives really good advice, especially since you listened to them, Hermione said the same thing but you never did."

Ron and Harry both tried to avoid looking downcast when they thought of the third member of their trio again.

"She just doesn't understand."

"Dark Wizard Breeding Ground," Harry agreed.

x-x-x-x

Daphne Greengrass was _furious!_ How dare he and Weasley dump them in the same category as Malfoy!? It'd taken all of her strength not to just shove her wand down Potter's throat and use some kind of blasting hex. Couldn't he see that this was just as uncomfortable for the rest of them? She was going to kill him. She'd never seen her sister so upset. How could he not remember how they'd almost grown up together?

"How the hell are we going to get through to him?" She exclaimed exasperatedly.

"Well, he doesn't know us…" Tracey tried, hoping to at least calm her friend down a little bit before they arrived in the charms classroom for their second to last lesson for the day, they had Defence Against The Dark Arts with The Gryffindors after this and then that would be it.

"And that should be reason enough for him to give us a chance, that boy is so frustrating. Especially since he's basing his opinions off the small portion of Slytherin he's actually interacted with, which just so happens to be one of the worst of us."

"I understand that he doesn't remember when we were small…but."

"He hurt Tori," Daphne said flatly, "I don't take to that very kindly."

"How are we supposed to get through to him then?"

"If only we had a neutral party…"

"Tonks tried, I overheard her with Potter and Weasley last night."

"Not them, it'd have to be someone else."

"I overheard them talking at lunch," Hermione said, passing her friends on the way to the Grand Staircase, heading for the ground floor where her Transfiguration class was going to take place, "Something about two unknown Marriage Contracts."

"Two more?" Tracey said, flabbergasted.

"How many does one person need?"

"I don't know exactly, but it sounds like Harry needs all the love he can get…I think his parents set it up that way, but this one seems to pre-date even their lifetime."

"Maybe one of them could be the person that binds us all together."

"I suppose we'll not know, did they say who it was?"

"They don't know by the sounds of it," Hermione said, "I've got to go, talk later?"

"Of course, Hermione. We'll see you in defence," Daphne said, giving her friend a small smile.

"Alright," Hermione nodded, then continued her way to the grand staircase.

x-x-x-x

 _Flashback_

 _Godric's Hollow_

 _July 31_ _st_ _1981_

" _Good morning my sweet little Harry," Lily cooed, picking her son out of the cot, "And how is my birthday boy today?"_

" _Pa'foot?"_

 _Lily rolled her eyes, Sirius had taught her son to say his name before anyone else's even James or herself. Their friend had thought it the perfect prank, but now Harry would always say it since it was the only word he knew._

" _Yes Harry, your Uncle Padfoot will be around later with the rest of the guests."_

 _The one year old sitting in Lily's arms clapped happily as if he understood what his mother was saying, "Pa'foot!" he said excitedly._

" _He's at it again, isn't he?" James said, walking into the room with a grudging smile on his face, he loved his son more than anything else. But Sirius had of course pulled the ultimate prank._

 _Harry then giggled and pointed at James, "Prongy!"_

 _James' jaw dropped and he rushed over to his wife, "Did he just?"_

 _Lily sighed, "Yes, he said your Marauder name, honestly I don't want my son turning into a delinquent like you and Black were at Hogwarts."_

" _Prongy! Pa'Foot!"_

 _James grinned, "Well, birthday boy, how about we go and get breakfast?"_

" _Prongy! Pa'foot!"_

" _We get it Harry," Lily said, trying not to laugh as she placed a kiss against her child's forehead, "Your father's child I swear."_

 _James laughed again, leading his wife downstairs where Sirius was waiting._

" _Hey Prongsie," Sirius said with a smile._

" _Padfoot," James said returning the smile, James had the policy that Sirius could enter the house whenever he wanted, he was practically his brother anyway._

" _Pa'foot!" Harry interrupted._

 _Sirius couldn't help but smirk when he heard his godson say this._

" _Here," Lily said, handing Harry over to Sirius, "Since you seem so fond of using his name go to your Uncle Padfoot."_

" _Pa'foot!" Harry said again._

" _He loves to talk," Sirius chuckled, taking Harry into his arms._

 _Right as he did, Lily turned and headed for the kitchen wanting to get a start on breakfast when a knock came at the door._

" _Who's that?" James asked, wondering if it might be one of their other friends, Remus Lupin or Peter Pettigrew._

" _It is I, Remus Lupin."_

" _Moony, you know you're more than welcome!"_

 _Remus chuckled and opened the door before heading inside to meet with his friends._

" _Yes, but unlike Padfoot I believe in manners."_

" _I'd be offended if it weren't true," Sirius stated._

" _We know," James interrupted, then he turned to Lily as she prepared breakfast, "Who's all coming?"_

" _Well, we've got you three, Dumbledore and his grand-daughter Ariana, Ted and Andie along with little Nym, The Greengrass's and The Davis'. Peter's busy with something apparently."_

" _Are you sure it was the best idea to make him secret keeper, Sirius?"_

" _I'm too obvious," Sirius interrupted, "My cousin Bellatrix she knows how close I am with you guys, my decoy will be the perfect answer, Harry won't have to worry because we're always going to be right there with him. I trust Peter with my life. Just as I trust you three with my life."_

 _A few moments later another knock came at the door, James hastened over to open it and immediately grinned when he did, "Adrian, Aurora! It's good to see you guys."_

" _Good to see you too Prongs."_

" _Aye, Come in, Come in."_

 _In Adrian's arms was a small girl around one year old with a tuft of blond hair covering her head, the one in Aurora's arms was smaller and had a little amount of obsidian hair on hers._

" _How long til the others arrive?"_

" _Not really sure," Lily said from the kitchen, "We've only just woken Harry up and the whole time it's been Padfoot this, Padfoot that and he's even started to almost say Prongs."_

" _His father's child," Aurora stated moving over to help her best-friend in the kitchen, passing Astoria off to James since the infant was already reaching for Harry._

 _Daphne looked up from her father's arms and pointed at the boy in Sirius' arms, "Wan' clo'er"_

" _What's she saying?" Remus asked amusedly._

" _She wants to be closer to Harry," Adrian explained._

 _Sirius smirked, "Getting all the girls already are we Harry?"_

 _Harry just looked over at Sirius and grinned, "Pa'foot."_

 _Sirius just laughed, "I don't think you quite understand yet, pup."_

 _Another knock was heard at the door and this time it was Remus who answered it, he pulled the white wooden door open and smiled, "Professor Dumbledore, hello."_

 _The olden man chuckled, "As I have not been your teacher for a great many years, I'd appreciate if you merely referred to me as Albus."_

 _A small three-year old girl with deep cerulean eyes and shiny golden hair rested in the aged Professor's arms._

" _And this must be Ariana, correct?"_

" _Correct," Dumbledore said with a smile._

" _Hi," Ariana said shyly._

" _Hi there, I'm Remus Lupin."_

" _Remy!" Ariana exclaimed._

 _Remus chuckled, "I suppose I can live with that."_

 _Ariana then looked at the boy clutched in the arms of Sirius and her eyes widened a little, "Harry."_

" _She's met him before?"_

" _Briefly…" Albus said, "I'm surprised she remembers him…magic works in the strangest of ways. I also wanted to introduce to you all a friend of mine. I also brought along an old friend of yours who'd been very busy of late."_

 _Dumbledore stepped aside to reveal a red-haired man with blue eyes and a big smile on his face._

" _Arthur!" James exclaimed, rushing over to hug his old friend. The two had been a couple of years apart in Hogwarts but got along exceptionally well even in spite of James and his Marauders' tendency for escapades._

" _I do apologize James, I'd bring the boys and Molly but with Ginevra's birth she's a little exhausted."_

" _I understand buddy."_

" _I did bring Ron however," he said indicating the one year old in his arms, "I figured since he's close to Harry's age it might be a better idea than bringing one of the older ones, especially the twins."_

" _Let's hope that Harry and the twins don't get too close," Lily admonished, "Otherwise we'll have another group of Marauders' on our hands."_

 _Even Dumbledore paled a little, "I'm not sure that Hogwarts could survive it a second time."_

 _End Flash Back_

 _Return to Current Time_

 _Transfiguration Class_

 _Hogwarts School_

"An Animagus is what?" Professor McGonagall asked her third year class.

"It is a wizard or witch that can transform themselves into an animal," Hermione, to no one's surprise answered.

"Well done, Miss Granger. Ten Points for Gryffindor. Now can anyone tell me what the debate is among wizards, Yes Miss Greengrass?"

"All Animagi must be registered, but some people believe that this is an invasion of personal privacy and disobey the law to register themselves. I think that, for the purpose of the law the registry is a good thing because it prevents bad things from happening just because an Animagus has the chance to turn into an animal should they ever face danger from the human community."

"Well done, ten points for Slytherin."

"Now, becoming an Animagus is incredibly difficult. Several Wizards have attempted it and failed, most don't bother to become one knowing the difficulty attached to it. The form can take several years to master leading most to just give up on it in the end. Another downside to this is that unlike several other Transfiguration spells the Animal Chooses the Wizard, your most prevalent traits will often determine what you transform into."

"But once you've mastered it, it's an incredibly valuable tool to have," and without further ado Professor McGonagall started shifting until she'd transformed into a fully grown Tabby Cat. A few of the students who didn't know she could do this gasped.

Once Transfiguration had ended, Harry and Ron were talking animatedly, but made sure it was quietly, "You reckon we should try to become Animagi then?"

"Are you crazy? You heard McGonagall Ron, it's extremely difficult, most wizards take years and then they just give up because of how hard it is."

"Yeah, but most wizards aren't us Harry. I mean look how quickly we picked up Runes once we put the effort in and the same with all of our classes today."

"I don't know Ron; one class doesn't make us good enough to try and become Animagi."

"At least think about it?"

Harry considered his friend's words for a few moments, he could find some use with an Animagus form, being able to escape from people constantly pointing at his scar when he needed to. The downside was, from what McGonagall had said in class, in much the same way a wand chooses the wizard, the animal chooses the wizard as well, there was no guarantee that either he or Ron would get a form that was useful.

"I'll think about it," Harry said begrudgingly.

Harry suddenly stopped when he saw a red-haired figure leaning beside the statue of the one-eyed, humpbacked wizard on the floor which led up to the Defence Against The Dark Arts Classroom.

"Ginny, you alright?" Harry asked.

"Fine," she said stiffly.

"Ron, I'll meet you at class yeah?"

"She's my sister, Harry, I'll talk to her."

"I'm fine!" Ginny snapped, then she stormed off in the opposite direction.

"What's her issue?" Ron said.

"I think…I think that she's upset, I mean she was alone last year because of the Chamber and because of that nobody probably wanted to befriend her after that…we've been a bit terrible towards her, haven't we? I mean, we save her, then say nothing toward her afterward."

"I can see what you mean, as much as most people would think it's uncool to hang around your little sister, she probably needs me more than most little sisters' need their older brother. Purely for what she's been through."

"I should've been a better friend to her."

"Well, we both should've been better towards her but we haven't."

"We've got to fix it."

"We can't now, idiot. We'll be late for Lupin and I am not missing a chance to experience one of our…okay let's disregard what I just said. Our best Defence Against The Dark Arts lesson ever."

"Alright, we'll talk to her after class…if we can find her, agreed?"

"What's got you so concerned about her all of a sudden, anyway?"

"I don't know," Harry admitted, "But…I know what it's like to be touched by Voldemort…so does she, we're kindred spirits in a way."

"If you say so Harry, come on. We'll be late otherwise."

 _ **End Chapter.**_

 _ **Yes, there will be some angry parties that I made more contracts with Harry when I said I wouldn't but the more of this Chapter I wrote the more it seemed to just flow out of me for some reason. I'm actually really shocked how high the word count got this time.**_

 _ **The next chapter will see a little bit more of the girls and we'll also see what Narcissa's been doing.**_

 _ **Don't begrudge me for getting Ginny into this, I love her character even if not many other share that. There's no Weasley-Bashing from me. Dumbles may just be in trouble though. He's got a lotta fixing to do when Harry and Ron figure out the depth of what he's done.**_

 _ **Also, opinions. Animagus. Yay or Nay?**_

 ** _Read/Review!  
Flames will be ignored as per usual._**


	11. Dumbledore's Honesty

_**Lumos!**_

 _ **Disclaimer: Don't own HP or anything associated with it.**_

CHAPTER ELEVEN: Dumbledore's Honesty

Ron had been feeling strange since his first year, as if he was purposely being dumbed down for some reason…and had an unnatural level of jealousy…more than was normal, as he and Harry ascended the final few steps between them and the final floor. Strangely enough, the effects had dwindled since he'd left Hogwarts the previous year…then he'd expected them to get stronger once again, but they never did. This was another thing Ron wanted to investigate. Why would someone dumb him down and fill him with jealousy? It didn't make sense.

He turned to ask Harry what he thought of this, but found they'd already arrived at the Defence classroom, now was not the time to discuss this, they'd have to go into it when they were away from anyone who could be eavesdropping. For now, though, it'd be best for him to focus his newly rediscovered intelligence into something productive.

"Welcome," Professor Lupin greeted once everyone had stepped inside, "As I am sure you're all well aware, my name is Professor Lupin and I will be your Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher. Now I decided today that since you're all so dreadfully behind the level you should be as third years we're going to be moving to the direction that you should've been going in two years ago and beyond. Today we're going to be interacting with Boggarts. Can anyone tell me what a Boggart looks like?"

"No one knows, Boggarts are shape-shifters," Hermione again answered, "That's what makes them so ter.."

"So terrifying yes, but the thing that can finish the boggart is laughter, now everyone repeat after me, _Riddikulus!"_

The class responded by calling it back to their Professor except for Draco Malfoy who muttered, "This class is ridiculous."

"now let's have an example…Neville, could you come up here please?"

The dark-haired boy approached the new Professor nervously.

"Yes?"

"Now Neville, what frightens you the most?"

"P…Professor Snape, sir."

A small rush of laughter overcame the class.

"And you live with your grandmother yes?"

"Yeah, but I don't want it to turn into her either."

"It won't," Lupin assured him after another rush of laughter, "I just need you to picture her clothes and only her clothes then wave your wand and say, _Ridikkulus!"_

Lupin then leaned into Neville's ear and whispered something for only him to hear.

"Can you do that for me?"

"I think so, Professor."

Neville went back to trying to instil that confidence in himself that Hermione was trying to teach him to have. Lupin flicked his wand in the direction of the cabinet and it quickly snapped open, Harry counted to three within his mind and that point Professor Snape walked out into the classroom, the last remaining Potter was surprised at the accuracy in which the Boggart was able to pull off such a transformation.

Neville hesitated, but only for a moment, then he cried, " _Riddikulus!"_

A vibrant flash of light covered the pseudo Snape's body, then laughter rang throughout the entire class seeing Snape dressed in Neville's grandmother's dress and carrying her red handbag. It was a ghastly sight which Harry, even though he'd seen a different side of Snape that morning, he'd felt that the Professor had caused him enough pain over the last couple of years to let him have this pass.

x-x-x-x-

"Albus, enough is enough."

"I don't understand what you mean Nicholas."

"I can sense it a mile off you old fool, disorienting draughts, compulsion for laziness potion, jealousy amplifying charms? You stoop too low!"

"T…That wasn't me…"

"Prove it."

"It was Lucius Malfoy."

"Why would he want to tamper with Weasley?"

Dumbledore sighed, "Because he knows he's going to lose Narcissa. He knew that he might for a long time and he is striking down a potential ally that Narcissa and Draco could have once everything is finalized."

"But…Why stop now?"

"Lucius has been busy with the divorce proceedings and forgot that he needed to apply the charms and potions again. Things are not always as they seem, Nicholas. But alas, I must keep my distance for now. Until Harry and Ron figure out the truth, it would be foolish of me to get them closer. They'll get suspicious."

"No Albus, you need to damned well explain yourself as soon as possible before you lose their allegiance forever. Especially since you know something of Malfoy's interference and have proceeded to do absolutely nothing about it! There's no excuse, old man!"

Dumbledore sighed, as much as he hated to admit it, his old friend was right, those boys were going to need to know that he could be trusted, and he wasn't some manipulative old fool like some had made him out to be over the years, especially Lucius Malfoy.

"Have you heard from Ariana, Nick?"

"She's just crossed into London after a stint in America, she said she'd write to you as soon as she got the chance."

Albus found himself laughing, "My own grand-daughter contacting you before me."

"She knows you're busy Albus."

"I know, but I think it's time she returned to us all, she's been working with MACUSA of the United States for the past few years as a Detective, but if we can get her stationed at Hogwarts again."

"Why?"

"Because…if we're going to convince Harry Potter that he doesn't have to return to Privet Drive at the end of the summer, we're going to have to work on making sure that an innocent man gets acquitted of the crimes he did not commit."

"We already have an Auror Team here Albus…"

"Who don't believe that our old friend is innocent, Ariana does. We have to bring her in on this."

"Alright, I'm trusting you Albus…don't make me regret it. Am I to assume you won't speak to them until such a time as we can prove that Sirius Black is innocent?"

"Unfortunately, your assumption is correct Nicholas. We cannot afford to do anything sooner, if we do it won't end well. Even though it's taken me too long to prove that my intentions weren't bad…I've still got ten years of putting Harry through hell that I've got to make up for."

"I've got to go and teach my final class for the day Albus, but make sure you write to Ariana."

"I will, Nicholas."

x-x-x-x-x

"Maybe if you actually tried reaching out to him," Luna Lovegood vocalized as she looked over her Charms essay in the Common Room in the wing of contracts. She was quickly becoming mediator between Harry and Ron for everyone else as of late, "See, you're focused too much on what Harry _should be_ rather than who he actually is. He wasn't raised by wizards and his only real example of Slytherin is negative. You shouldn't expect that it all be up to him."

Daphne, Astoria and Tracey were taken aback by the dreamy sounding girl's accuracy. She was viewed by others, especially ones from their own house to be 'out-there' and 'ditzy' but from the few conversations they'd had with her, she was very intelligent and could put words to things that most others couldn't, even if she was a bit quirky in some of the things she did and believed in.

"So what you're saying is that we should?"

"That's not for me to tell you, if you can't figure it out then he's right not trusting you. You shouldn't expect him to just fall at your feet like other purebloods would. Harry is not like any of them and if he's going to trust someone he needs to have proof that he can trust you."

Luna got up, smiling, "I've got to go and hand this in to Professor Flitwick, but I'll see you all later. Think about it, at least."

The diminutive blond turned on heel and skipped out of the common room with a small smile on her pale features.

Daphne, Astoria and Tracey were definitely left with a lot to think about when Luna departed. Perhaps there was a chance that they could prove him wrong? They couldn't just expect him to find out that they were different through extreme digging on his part, that wasn't fair and it defeated the purpose of the union the parents put together all those years ago.

x-x-x-x

Two cerulean hued eyes turned towards the window and a pale hand pushed strawberry blond hair out of the woman's visage. Ariana Dumbledore had only been back in England for a few short hours, but she was already growing impatient. Something had told her that she needed to be here for some reason or another, but no one had bothered to fill her in with what was happening. Her grandfather was as quiet as ever and she didn't see him stepping out to keep her informed any time soon.

"Frustrating as ever," Ariana groaned, staring dreamily out the window, "Why couldn't it have been something else? I don't know, the Bahamas!"

What the young woman was referring to happened to be the current state of the weather, which was coming in heavy pelts against her window, resigning herself to her fate, she stood to move away and at least light the fire for some warmth. At the precise moment she stood an envelope burst into existence on the desk she'd just been leaning on, seeing her grandfather's cursive, loopy, hand-writing, her eyebrow arched.

"He always seems to know what I'm thinking about, it's slightly creepy."

Without giving herself more time to lose herself in these laments, she pulled open the envelope and extracted the letter within.

 _ **Ariana**_

 _ **How has your trip been? I would like to meet with you in person. Letters are easily confiscated in this day and age, even with the charm that I used to send it. The matter in question surrounds the events of Halloween 1981. I know that you did not intend to be back in England for very long, but I hope I can give you incentive to at least stay for a year.**_

 _ **Please consider meeting me at your earliest convenience,**_

 _ **Until Then I wish you farewell.**_

 _ **Grandfather Albus**_

"He wants to meet with me?" Ariana murmured, "Intriguing…I'd transferred from the Auror division into the Detective division in MACUSA so that I could move away from the United Kingdom and have a break from British problems when Voldemort fell, but it seems that there's something heavy going on at the school. Does the Ministry honestly believe that Black would go there?"

Sighing to herself, Ariana pushed her hair away from her eyes once more, then strode over to the fireplace. The room in the Leaky Cauldron she'd chosen was a tidy and well-kept looking room. It was shining and looked as though it'd been built the previous day. This room even had private floo access.

She chuckled to herself, trying to think of what kind of trouble that her grandfather had gotten himself into this time and threw the powder into the grate, yelling: "Hogwarts!"

The green flames swirled around the witch's body, she felt like she was being pulled down a giant sinkhole…however as soon as the feeling started it was gone and she calmly walked out into her grandfather's office.

"What's this about?" The strawberry blond-haired woman asked the man sitting behind his desk.

Dumbledore sighed, "Hello to you too, Grand-daughter."

"You said it was urgent, did you not?"

Albus sighed, he could understand why his grand-daughter was frustrated, but he really wished that she wouldn't be so demanding, it was a trait that she'd definitely got from her mother's side of the family. That much he couldn't deny.

"It's about Sirius Black."

"He wouldn't come here, he's got no reason too."

"Ah, except that your Uncle Nicholas and I believe that he has reason too. We can't prove it yet, but we think that Peter Pettigrew is living here as a rat of one of our students."

"There's no time to waste then!" Ariana said fiercely.

"We cannot rush into this without the evidence to back it up…Mr. Weasley is quite attached to his pet."

"To hell with it Grandfather, I'll buy the boy an owl. It'd be a damn lot more useful than a stinking rat like Pettigrew."

"And how do you plan on setting it up exactly?"

"Give me a week and that rat will be in custody."

"I thought you might be driven enough to do so my dear."

"Yeah, no more games grandfather. I'm going to make sure that justice is served to the right people."

"I thought you might. So does that mean you'll be staying?"

"Yes, but I don't want to room with any of the students, I want my own quarters. How about Professor Merrythought's old office?"

"You drive a hard bargain, Ariana but I will be more than willing to accommodate this of course."

"Good."

x-x-x-x-

Draco Malfoy was enjoying a day of being tailed by Crabbe and Goyle while also picking on everyone else in sight, he loved how he could push them around just because he was better than them, it was a wonderful feeling that was for sure.

"Hey Malfoy!" Warrington shouted out, "Look at the Prophet!"

Draco arched his brow at the boy, but shook his head and pulled up the newspaper and there, staring back at him was a picture of his mother beneath the head-line, 'Noble Family Split: Narcissa Black divorces Lucius Malfoy'

The young Malfoy boy was left in-shock, how could this happen to him? He had everything! How dare his mother make his entire world come crashing down around him? How dare she besmirch the name Malfoy?

This was unacceptable in no uncertain terms!

Gritting his teeth, Draco decided to read on:

 **Narcissa Black – formerly Malfoy, has decided to go public with her decision to divorce from notable pureblood, Lucius Malfoy. The decision was made official in Courtroom Nine earlier yesterday morning and now the two are going their separate ways. Even through the split, Narcissa will get half of the Malfoy fortune and custody of her son Draco. Lucius Malfoy seems to be both affronted and angry that this dare happen and has now effectively banished Draco Malfoy from the family tree, which will force him to carry his mother's maiden name of Black as well.**

Not a Malfoy anymore?

Draco growled angrily and ripped the paper to shreds and stormed off. This day could not get any worse! He growled some more until an owl smashed head-long into the centre of his chest. Draco stumbled backwards and luckily hit into Goyle, for if he hadn't, he might've ended up on the floor.

The owl dropped a letter into the fallen boy's hand, then departed off into the castle somewhere.

What could this possibly be?' Draco roared within his mind, thinking it better not to mention anything while Professor McGonagall was walking past. She and him really didn't see eye-to-eye.

 _ **Dear Mister Black (Formerly heir Malfoy)**_

 _ **It has come to our attention that you have been disowned by one Lucius Malfoy, meaning that you now fit the candidacy of the male Black contract made with the Prewitt Family several centuries ago. This Family now goes under the name 'Weasley' due to the marriage between Lord Weasley and Heiress Prewitt.**_

 _ **As of the reading of this letter you are betrothed to one Ginevra Weasley.**_

 _ **We hope you enjoy your day.**_

 _ **Accounts Manager Graplock.**_

HE WAS ENGAGED TO WEASLETTE!?

Merlin was out to kill him.

 _ **End Chapter.**_

 _ **So, this one's a little shorter and I'm sorry about that guys I just want to have a bit more time to think about who Harry's last two contracts should be as well as thinking of who Ron's could be as well. I've all but decided Draco's ones.**_

 _ **Fleur Delacour will not be involved in these contracts.**_

 _ **If anyone wishes to see Harry and Fleur in that capacity should go and read my story 'The Contracts of Victory'. The next chapter of which will be out very soon.**_

 _ **I'm also not having Harry with the Quidditch girls in this story because of another I'm working on called 'Home' which sees Harry get roped into a relationship with all three of them XD So if you're wanting to read that story another chapter will be out soon too.**_

 _ **My other stories**_

' _ **A Different Sort of Light' which sees Harry in a marriage contract with Bellatrix Lestrange, Narcissa Malfoy and Andromeda Tonks is also nearing it's next update.**_

 _ **If you ever wonder why my updates are so sporadic this is why XD not to mention the fact that I'm a competitive gamer and a full-time University student too.**_

 _ **Either way, If you have any ideas for the last two marriage contracts for Harry, send me a Private Message with DETAILED. Reasoning why.**_

' _ **I think she's a good fit' is not an appropriate answer. REASONS are important.**_

 _ **I rambled a bit there, sorry. Bye for now R/R Flames Ignored!**_

 _ **Nox!**_


	12. The Voices In The Walls

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or anything associated with it.**_

Chapter Twelve: The Voices In The Walls

Ariana Dumbledore had been working for a few days at Hogwarts under the premise of being an American Transfer to 'help' deal with the matter of the escaped convict Sirius Black, whereas an actual fact, she was secretly scouring the castle to try and find any trace of the person Sirius had come to Hogwarts to find, Peter Pettigrew. She was dead set on proving that her adopted uncle was innocent, she'd believed it right from the beginning…it was part of the reason she'd joined the Aurors in the first place, determined that she could do some serious good for Sirius' case…that especially came in force when she learned that he had been placed in Azkaban without even receiving a trial, which had only served to further agitate the woman.

If only she had some way to corner the pathetic rat then there wouldn't be so many issues, at least that what's she thought. There was no way she could possibly let any situation that presented itself to slip out of her grasp, ultimately, it was what she needed…. but how did she put that into place?

"I'll need to think more on this," she murmured to herself, continuing to peruse through the book she was reading on Animagi, this had more significance than the casual passer-by was likely to notice. Ariana knew very many things about all sorts of topics, Animagi included. Being the grand-daughter of one of the most powerful wizards to ever live had some perks after all.

"I need to read more, perhaps there's an answer between the lines."

"I think you're searching too hard, Miss Dumbledore."

The blond lifted her head, and immediately her cerulean orbs widened in surprise, "Uncle!"

"Hey there," Nicholas said with a little smile.

"I was wondering when we'd run into each other, has he got you on this ridiculous mission as well? How are we going to capture someone who hides themselves so well?"

"Only time will tell I suppose, my dear…but we cannot escape our duty to him."

"Of course we can't."

"But there is another matter I wish to discuss with you for now, it regards one Harry Potter."

"He won't know that Pettigrew's the one after him," she said with a soft gasp.

"I'm going to have his security made…tighter, Harry won't like it, but we don't want to get his hopes up…or clue Pettigrew into the fact that we're after him."

"So, what was this thing about him you wanted to discuss with me then?"

"The marriage contract which features both you and Harry as the participants."

"How did you find out?"

"A letter was sent to your grandfather since he's still technically the head of the Dumbledore family. He arranged for me to deliver the message while he continued to do what he needs to as headmaster."

"But Harry Potter already has four wives, Uncle…"

"And I am sure he will love you just as much as he will them in time, he needs someone to rely on that doesn't make him feel uneasy like Tonks or people he doesn't want to be around like the other three."

"I'm the unknown quantity," she whispered.

"Yes, hopefully you will be able to teach him to trust the others as well as yourself."

"Unfortunately, I can't go to him right this moment, I've gotta try and work on this thing before it gets blown out of proportion."

"I know how important finding that traitor is to you, believe me," Nicholas cut in, "but now, I think that Harry should be your main concern. He's wanting to focus on standing alone…which considering what I know about the boy isn't that surprising."

Ariana seemed surprised by this, it was concerning, but she too expected it. Whoever had put that kid with those muggles had only been fooling themselves if they were hoping that it would do Harry or the wizarding world any favours.

"Is there anyone else who can act as that? I can't do much for him until my first task is complete."

"I could contact the other known betrothed."

"Alright, I'll trust you to make the right decision Uncle, I have to make sure that Harry gets his family back before anything else."

"Of course."

"Thank you," she said, then Ariana politely excused herself and departed the room.

Hopefully Ariana would find Pettigrew before it was too late, he had horrible images of it taking enough time that the little rat would manage to escape right under their very noses. He knew, on the other hand, that Ariana would have to be careful. If Pettigrew clued on to what was happening, then they would definitely lose a chance to capture him, probably for good too.

He had no choice now, he would have to write the letter. Nicholas had been in regular contact with the Goblins, just making sure that Dumbledore was digging his hands into too many pots at once. Ragnarok was an old friend of his, the Goblin King had been quick to assure him that Dumbledore was having no say in the Gringotts aspect of Harry's life, they were making sure of it, not that he would be foolish enough to attempt messing with them anyway.

Nicholas approached his office silently, then sat down behind his desk and began to write.

x-x-x-x

"So, next game of the season rapidly approaching!" Oliver Wood said excitedly, "Going to be rough conditions, especially considering the presence of the dementors, but Professor McGonagall has assured me that they won't fly too close to the pitch. However, for the love of merlin don't fly too far away from the pitch or it's not going to end so well."

Fred leaned closer to Harry, a smirk present on his face, "Different pep-talk…how come it still feels the same? Don't be stupid, let's win."

Harry couldn't help but to release a small laugh as he swung a leg over his Nimbus 2000. The rain was pelting down against his goggles, but luckily Angelina had cast an Impervius Charm across the entire team to give their vision protection during the weather conditions of the current game.

"Alright, let's get going team!"

The precipitation splashed violently against Harry's face, he gripped the handle of his broom as tightly as he could in these conditions, it was a small thrill for Harry to be back in the air on the pitch even if the weather was nigh on terrible.

Harry pelted across the sky, trying to discover any sign of the golden snitch, he was determined to grab it sooner rather than later, at least that way, Gryffindor would win, and they could all go back to where it was dry. Of course, like with most things in Harry's life, fate had other plans. He continued to soar higher and higher into the air, a glitter of gold catching in his vision, he was getting closer, Harry Potter could almost taste victory on his lips.

A sudden chill rushed through his entire body, Harry whipped round and spotted a menacing figure, shrouded in a black cloak floating towards him. His eyes widened, but Harry managed to keep his composure. He whipped round, then shot off into the air, trying to get higher into the air to avoid the Dementor.

Harry yanked his broom into a complete ninety-degree angle, the wind rushed through the last Potter's hair, he would lure the dementor and then drop past it at rapid speeds, at least that's what the plan had been until another Dementor ascended through the clouds on Harry's other side.

Soon, more and more of the creatures came out of the clouds, all rushing towards their target. Harry vaguely recalled a woman's scream, his body tilting sideways until he was separated from the thin piece of wood keeping him in the air… _Then everything had gone black._

Harry fell through the air, his body twisting and turning at random, but due to his unconsciousness, he felt none of it. Dumbledore quickly rose from his seat in the staff podium and extended a hand towards the air, " _Arresto Momentum!"_

x-x-x-x-x

The last thing Harry Potter had expected to feel when he came to, before his eyes even opened was a small amount of pressure on his hand, as though someone were holding it. He released a soft groan, his body ached in so many places. Harry's eyes opened, a blurry mass before him indicated that someone else was here, he went to reach for his glasses, but the distinctively feminine hand stopped him from reaching them.

"Wha?"

" _Listen Harry, I don't want your perception of me to be damaged by you knowing who I am."_

Harry tilted his head, he almost recognized her voice, but at the same time, he was in such a disorientated state that he couldn't place who it was.

" _I'm glad you're okay at least,"_ she continued in a soft tone, " _You gave all of us quite the scare…"_

Harry wanted to say something, anything, but he found that his body wasn't agreeing with him in this moment. It was more than frustrating that he couldn't reach his glasses through the girl, or he'd be able to at least see who it was…but perhaps that's what she wanted because of the negative ways he'd displayed emotions to most people as of late.

It was one of the girls he was betrothed to, he could recognize the perfume from the common room which they all shared, against his will however. He'd play along for now and he could figure out who'd come to visit him later.

" _The others might blame you for treating them badly Harry, but I can't blame you, you've had only bad examples of our house and we knew about these contracts for longer than you did…we should've made a better effort with you earlier. I'm not going to pretend that it'll be easy…but I really think that we all should give this a chance to work out."_

Harry suddenly felt a pair of lips against his forehead, then he felt the pressure leave his hand, he managed to make out enough of the figure to see her leaving the room, he quickly pulled on his glasses, but unfortunately, he'd been to slow and had missed discovering who it was.

"Harry," a bright voice said, "How you feeling?"

Harry breathed a sigh of relief, seeing Hermione and Ron walk towards him.

"I'm sorry," Hermione whispered, "I rushed into the situation with logic and didn't consider anything else."

"It's fine, don't worry about it," Harry was just secretly glad to have best-friend back, he and Ron both admitted, the latter rather begrudgingly that things weren't the same without Hermione around. Harry then turned back to Ron, a look of worry written over his pale features, "Did someone get my nimbus?"

"Well, thing is…see, the Nimbus hit the Whomping Willow and you know that tree, it doesn't really like being hit."

Harry blanched, his beloved Nimbus had been destroyed…he was injured and now he had the puzzle to solve of a mysterious visitor coming to see him but not letting him put his glasses on to see who this mystery visitor was. It was a little maddening.

"Brooms are replaceable I guess." Harry leaned back into the pillows that'd been propped up for him to that he could at least sit up in bed, he looked around for Madam Pomfrey, but she seemed busy tending to another patient, so Harry continued his conversation with his two best-friends, "So, how long have I been out?"

"Roughly two days Harry," Hermione divulged gently, not really knowing what Harry's reaction was going to be.

"I figured as much," he said, resignedly, 'Did we win the game at least?"

Ron and Hermione's expression were enough to tell Harry what he needed to know. He had hoped they would've at least won the game, but losing a seeker was completely detrimental to a Quidditch teams game, because losing a Seeker to injury meant that there was no one to catch the snitch and the way he'd gone out, there probably wasn't enough time to organize some kind of reserve player to take over for him.

"You can't blame yourself Harry, the Dementors weren't supposed to be so close to the ground, Dumbledore looked furious when he went to deal with him after saving you."

"Yeah, but Professor Flamel looked even angrier than Dumbledore did," Ron cut in, "I've never seen the Dementors actually afraid of someone before."

"Flamel is strange…" Hermione agreed, "The Dementors seem to like avoiding him as if he has an overabundance of energy…come to think of it, on the train, the Dementor seemed to try and avoid Ron…it was trying to avoid you as well, as if it was overwhelmed and it reacted the only way it knew how, violently. Now that I've looked at the situation a little differently I noticed that the Dementor wasn't calculated like they usually are…it was desperate."

"Are you saying what I think you are?" Harry said.

"I think Professor Flamel might be tied to these strange abilities that you both have started developing since the summer."

"Like he gave them to us or?"

"I don't think he gifted you with them no, even if he's really powerful, I don't think he's _that_ powerful," Hermione spoke in response to Ron's question, "but he could potentially be another user."

Another user? This could open up a lot of opportunities, especially considering that Nicholas would have a lot more experience with the kind of powers they were capable of using, it was a chance to finally get some kind of understanding into how their powers worked.

"I guess we'll need to go and speak with him then."

"Should we really push?" Ron interjected, "I mean, if he's really in-tune with these powers…he's keeping them hidden and there's got to be a reason for it, right?"

"Unfortunately, Ron's right. As good as the knowledge would be, it'd be unlikely that Professor Flamel would want to talk about it since he clearly doesn't display these abilities to the common public."

x-x-x-x

"I'm sorry Narcissa, my hands are tied for the time being," Amelia said with a soft expression gracing her features, "Unfortunately since there exists no hard evidence of Sirius being innocent seeing as the only people who have the evidence are in no position to tell us, we can't make any moves."

"I feared that might be the case, so what do we do from here?"

"I want to see him go free as much as the next person, don't get me wrong. I knew James and Sirius during their time at Hogwarts, there would be no way on earth I'd imagine him betraying someone that he considered as good as a brother."

"He wouldn't. James' family took Sirius in when his own kicked him out at the age of sixteen and then blasted him off the Black family tree."

"I have become aware of a search for evidence," Amelia said, "An old friend tells me that there is work at Hogwarts being undertaken to prove Sirius' innocence. We just have to have faith that it's all going to work out in the end."

 _ **End Chapter**_

 _ **Please R/R**_

 _ **Flames Ignored**_

 _ **Also, I'm going to shamelessly plug my other story here that needs a little love. For all interested in things Disney, I've got a Descendants fanfic up here as well and I'd appreciate it if my wonderful readers would go and have a look at it please.**_


	13. Cat and Mouse

Chapter Thirteen: Cat and Mouse.

Things had been rough for Harry Potter following the days he'd landed in the Hospital Wing, the recovery process, no matter how easily the Hogwarts matron, Madame Pomphrey could fix people up, it didn't make it any of the easier to get through the short time and it also made bigger injuries when you had to wait even worse. Finally, roughly two days after he'd been trapped inside the Hospital Wing, Madam Pomphrey had finally discharged him.

"It feels so good to be able to move around again!" Harry declared.

"Only downside is now you'll have to go back to the ordinary common room."

"Don't ruin it, Ron."

"Sorry, mate."

Harry pushed forward through the corridor, he was heading back in the direction of the commons that he and Ron shared with their respective betrotheds, Harry was hoping that when he got back that they'd all be out and about so that he wouldn't have to interact with any of them just yet, but as was usual, fate had different plans in mind for the last remaining Potter. The moment that the portrait had swung open, Harry felt a mass of something collide with his front.

" _Harry James Potter! Don't you dare scare me like that ever again!"_

Harry recognized the voice to be Astoria's, his gaze turned down and he saw dampness in her eyes that he'd not been expecting to see, did she really care? Perhaps Hermione had been right in the end after all, whether she was or not was irrelevant at this point though, there was a crying girl in his arms, Slytherin or not, Harry didn't want anyone to cry because of something he'd done. Harry couldn't help but notice the striking colour of her eyes in this moment, they were drawing him in as if the two of them were inches apart…ready to connect, Harry pulled Astoria into a tight hug, keeping her as close to his body as he dared, he didn't know what to say, but luckily for him, he didn't feel like words would be necessary at this point.

"Explanation?" a second voice asked, "I thought you were dead set on being against us and everything we do?"

Harry looked over to Daphne and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "Sorry, I'm just really terrible with crying girls."

"You only did that because I was crying?" Astoria asked, hurt clear in her expression, she shot him a glare and if looks could kill, well Harry would be pushing up daisies right now, " _I hate you!"_

Astoria would then proceed to storm off to the girls dormitories within the private commons and slam the door.

"Well done, Potter," Daphne growled, then turned and headed up after her sister.

"What did I do?" Harry asked cluelessly.

"No idea," Ron added with a shrug., "Come on let's play a game of chess or something."

"Ron, I have no desire to have my ass handed to me by you at chess again."

"Point taken."

Laughing together, the two boys crossed the common room, then dropped down onto the lush armchairs right by the fireplace. They released identical sighs of contentment before stretching out on the sofa. Harry stared into the flames thinking back to some of the things that had happened over the year, they were just about half-way towards the Christmas Holidays and here they were just dealing with all these crazy and unbelievable circumstances. In all fairness, Harry felt that compared to his previous two years at Hogwarts this was rather tame and perhaps he could live with that, provided Sirius Black didn't get his hands on him first.

Harry continued to stare into the flames, wondering why Astoria had seemed so upset, when he'd said that he was hugging her because he didn't know how else to handle crying girls….? What had he done that was so terrible? _It hit him a second later._ She thought that he was only doing it because he felt obligated to just to stop her from crying rather than to show care for her, which she had done for him by telling him how much she'd worried about him. In hindsight, Harry should've probably clued onto that a bit sooner.

She'd…She'd cared for him…

And her eyes…they were drop-dead gorgeous! Why did he never notice that before today?

 _Because you were too busy being an asshole and lumping her with the rest of the Snakes._

He had to fix this and fast. Harry suddenly jumped to his feet and Ron gave him a weird look, "you right mate?"

"Yeah, I just need to fix something."

Harry rushed over to the right-hand side of the steps and went to take a step upwards, then he face planted, releasing a soft growl, of course, he'd forgotten about that particular precaution.

"You won't get up there, boy's rules remember?"

"Er, right, yeah."

This was frustrating, Harry wasn't even using it as an excuse to do anything that he shouldn't be doing.

"Astoria!" Harry tried yelling up at the closed dormitory door, hoping for the best.

" _Go Away!_ "

Harry sighed, this wasn't going to be easy, was it? "I'm sorry, please, can we talk?"

A loud, frustrated groan escaped Astoria's lips and she got up off the bed, gave Daphne a look that clearly said you'd better not ruin that again. She then opened the door and descended the steps to come face-to-face with a relieved looking Harry.

"Well?" Astoria asked him expectantly.

"I'm sorry that I said that, It came out differently than to how I really meant it, I really don't have a lot of experience with this sort of thing, but I won't go into the reasons. People are d-difficult for me."

Despite how nervous Harry seemed, Astoria confidently stepped forward. She clutched Harry by the scruff of his shirt and pulled him in close to her, Harry could feel her breath wafting against his own, the warmth was not unpleasant either, Astoria leaned in, the space between them decreasing once more, everything in Harry was speeding up, he could literally _feel_ his heart quaking from the nerves.

The second before their lips met for the first time, a loud swinging noise captured their attention and both Harry and Astoria jumped away from each other, not before Astoria released another groan of disappointment, " _Not again!"_

"Harry?"

"Fred? George? What is it? How did you even get in here?"

"We tricked McGonnagall into giving us the password," Fred said earnestly, "We need to talk to you about something…in private."

"Alright let's go, you guys stay here. I'll be back in a minute."

"But what about me, I'm only your brother," Ron shot back.

"Sorry Ron, this is for Harry's ears only, stop being so bloody nosy," George said before Ron could even finish his sentence.

Fred and George along with Harry climbed the stone steps within the Betrothal Tower, walking up into the bedroom that was currently occupied by the two boys, Harry gave them a clearly irritated look that spoke volumes of, 'this better be good.'

 **Fred pulled something from inside his cloak with a flourish and laid it on one of the beds. It was a large, square, very worn piece of parchment with nothing written on it. Harry, suspecting one of Fred and George's jokes, stared at it.**

" **What's this rubbish?"**

" **What's this rubbish he says! That there is the secret to our success, it's a wrench giving it you believe me but, in the end, we decided that your needs are greater than ours. George if you will."**

 **He took out his wand, touched the parchment lightly and said, 'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.'**

 **And at once, thin ink lines began to spread like a spider's web from the point that George's wand had touched. They joined each other, they criss-crossed, they fanned into every corner of the parchment; then words began to blossom across the top, great, curly green words, that proclaimed: Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers are proud to present THE MARAUDER'S MAP.**

 **It was a map showing every detail of the Hogwarts castle and grounds. But the truly remarkable thing was the tiny ink dots moving around it, each labelled with a name in minuscule writing. Astounded, Harry bent over it. A labelled dot in the top left corner showed that Professor Dumbledore was pacing his study; the caretaker's cat, Mrs Norris, was prowling the second floor, and Peeves the poltergeist was currently bouncing around the trophy room. And as Harry's eyes travelled up and down the familiar corridors, he noticed something else.**

 **This map showed a set of passages he had never entered.**

Harry's eyes travelled the map, his eyes suddenly hit something that completely astounded him, "Wait guys, what's that name there?" Harry said, pointing out one in the very room that they were in.

"Peter Pettigrew?" George asked curiously, then he looked over to Fred.

"No idea," Fred answered with a shrug.

Harry looked up, "but hang on, it's saying he's in this room over there," here Harry paused to point out Scabbers' cage.

"That's weird."

Without hesitation, Harry whipped his wand out from the inside of his trousers and pointed it at the cage, " _Colloportus!"_

Immediately the cage's handle glowed purple for a moment, and locked itself.

Midnight, Harry's kitten jumped off the bed and began growling lowly, apparently something about this rat had it on edge, Midnight was supposed to be one of those kittens who didn't get bothered by natural enemies because of his magical disposition…which could only mean one thing.

This rat was magical as well.

"We need a plan, Fred, George, go get McGonagall or Dumbledore."

While the twins darted out of the dormitories, not without George first tapping the map and proclaiming, "Mischief Managed," then he turned to Harry, "Don't forget to tap it and say that when you're done otherwise anyone can read it."

George then rushed out of the dormitory in pursuit of his twin.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x

"Harry," Professor Dumbledore said, entering the dorm with Professor McGonagall, Professor Flamel and Professor Lupin in tow, "What seems to be the matter?"

"Professor, this rat…this _rat is an Animagus._ "

"And how exactly did you come to uncover that, Harry?" Mcgonnagall asked, stepping around the group to get a better look at the small rodent locked inside the cage.

"My Cat, Midnight, sensed it," Harry lied quickly, he didn't think it would be a good idea to tell any of the staff about the map, especially not since Fred and George had only just given it to him.

" ** _I'll remember that you owe me a favour,"_** the feline responded cheekily.

Professor Dumbledore approached the front of the cage, then turned his attention back to the rest of the group of adults that had gathered, then gave them a nod, "Whilst I cannot be sure what is truly going on here just yet, we shall test out your theory, Harry."

"If you'll stand back, Harry, that'd be delightful," Nicholas voiced casually, rolling up his sleeves and removing his wand from the inside of his trousers, "We'll need the space if it really is an Animagus of some kind."

"Nicholas, ready?"

"Ready, Albus."

Professor Dumbledore pointed his wand at the cage and muttered, " _Alohamora."_

The moment the words had been uttered, the lock on the cage slowly slipped upwards and the cage burst open, Scabbers darting towards the doorway which Ron had quickly jumped out of the way of when he saw the Alchemy Professor brandishing his wand expertly, he flicked his wrist a tiny amount and a jet of blue light erupted from the Professor's wand, it streaked across the sky and slammed straight into the rat's side.

It took roughly four seconds, but after they'd passed through those moments the small form of the rat had shifted and morphed into the smallish form of the ugly man, Peter Pettigrew. He was short, balding and his face actually somewhat resembled a real rat's.

"Peter Pettigrew!" Remus gasped.


	14. Cat and Mouse (Part II)

Chapter Fourteen: Cat and Mouse (Part II)

The man who'd sniffled violently upon hearing Remus' exclamation, whimpered against his hands in a fashion that seemed _very_ reminiscent of the rat he'd just been reverse-transfigured from.

"You sold James and Lily to Voldemort, didn't you?" Remus snarled.

"Calm yourself, Lupin."

Nicholas Flamel's voice was calm and authoritative, gently guiding Remus to take a step back and let those with more calm demeanours handle the situation. He knew that since the current Defence Professor had personal history with Pettigrew that it could potentially sway the man into making a hasty move that might risk them all losing any chance of using Pettigrew's reveal for the right reasons rather than just killing him off.

"Sorry, Professor Flamel."

"It's quite alright, Albus. Send for Ariana."

"Of course."

"Is Auror Tonks present?"

"I've got her tied up at the other end of the castle," McGonnagall said softly.

"Send summons for her immediately also."

"Can you keep Pettigrew from escaping?" Remus asked Flamel softly.

Nick shook his head, "Not alone. Harry, Ron come over here and form a circle around Pettigrew with me."

It was more of a command than a request, but nonetheless neither Harry nor Ron disagreed. They quickly moved around the oddly dishevelled man. Ron was having to keep his concentration, the thought of being betrayed in this way with who his pet had turned out to be had visibly crushed him.

"Alright the first thing to do is raise your hands, no matter what he does, do not break focus."

Harry and Ron followed the next instruction even as Pettigrew whimpered things like, "We were best of friends," and "I was your rat!"

"Now boys, focus all of your power into forming a bubble around him."

Harry could feel a light thrumming in his hand and a flash of light, but nothing much more than that and he assumed it was the same for Ron because he too was surprised to see that it hadn't worked?

"I note your surprise, but magic won't always act as you think. Just because you envisioned a bubble with your mind doesn't mean that you would see it taking a physical shape in the next moment."

Despite the mystery surrounding the new powers, Harry was still glad that they'd finally got Pettigrew into a spot which he couldn't escape from as long as he, Ron and Professor Flamel maintained their focus on the matter-at-hand.

Harry took a deep breath, focusing on keeping the energy he was putting out regulated and holding it to match with the other two in the circle.

A moment later, Auror Tonks and Detective Ariana came rushing into the room with their wands drawn.

"Pettigrew," Ariana practically snarled, "Alright, Uncle Nick, you and the boys can take a break from holding him, we'll take it from here."

"As you wish."

Harry dropped the grip, falling back against the wall and exhaling several deep breaths in quick succession. Whatever the hell he'd just done had taken a lot of energy out of him and now he was barely able to stand.

"Are you two alright, kids?" Nicholas asked, he didn't even look slightly perturbed by the feat of magic the three of them had just performed, but as Harry thought, he'd probably done this stuff for so long that he was used to the reserve and output that it required to pull of whereas Ron and himself weren't at that experience level yet. Speaking of Ron, Harry tilted his head to see that his best-friend was in an even worse state than he was.

"Y-yeah, not bad thanks Professor," Ron muttered weakly, then collapsed against the wall unconscious.

"We'll be fine after…after a little rest…"

And following that, Harry too fell against the wall in an unconscious position.

"We have apprehended a man believed dead under the suspicion that he is involved in the deaths of James and Lily Potter on the night of October thirty first, nineteen eighty-one. Claims to this are Albus Dumbledore, Nicholas Flamel, Ariana Dumbledore, Harry Potter and Remus Lupin. Further inquiries shall be followed through with and trial given at an appropriate time as witnessed by Auror Nymphadora Tonks and Detective Ariana Dumbledore."

"Well, looks we're wrapping up things here. We'll take him to the Ministry and then get back to you within the next few days," Ariana paused to turn her gaze to Harry, "unfortunately that means that you and I won't have time for a decent reacquaintance until after all this is dealt with, but I hope to convene with you in the ensuing weeks anyway."

"We'll be back as soon as we can, Harry," Tonks promised.

Together the two women activated some sort of strange device that Harry had never seen before and then they were gone.

"Well, I think that's enough excitement for today, don't you think?"

"I have to agree with you, Nicholas," Dumbledore said softly, "And we'd better let everyone calm down from the chaos that has occurred here today."

He took a moment to look at each of the children in turn and then bowed his head in respect to them all and departed the room a moment later.

"I wish he'd taken more of an opportunity to talk," Harry said once Dumbledore had left the common room.

"Well, I can expect that with all this information coming out of Hogwarts in the next few hours, he's going to need to prepare himself for the storm that's sure to follow," Flamel stated wisely.

"And what was that thing you had us do to keep Pettigrew in place?" Ron put in before he could stop us.

Nicholas sighed, "Not yet. I'm sorry Ron. I can't tell you or Harry anything more as it is not quite the time for it yet. I will tell you in due course I assure you, but not yet."

He gave them all a final sort of nod, then followed Dumbledore's trail out of the common room, heading out to deal with his own set of things.

"I am sure you all have many questions," Remus said, "but for now you should all try and get some rest. We'll tackle things in the morning, I promise."

He walked over to Harry and ruffled his hair, "Particularly you and I, Harry, need to have a conversation. I'm not sure if you know-."

"You're the Remus my parents mentioned in their will, right?"

A soft smile came to the man's face and he nodded, "As I said, I am sure that you have many questions Harry, but they'll have to wait until tomorrow. For now, I need to rest and I am sure the rest of you are the same."

"Of course, Professor Lupin," Harry responded, "Goodnight."

The Professor inclined his head and then departed the room a second later.

Harry, then looked back to Ron and smiled, "Well looks like we can finally have a little bit of quiet now that's over."

"Yeah, but life's never quiet when you know Harry Potter."

The two boys laughed and headed up to their dormitory together.

[X]

Remus sat down at the chair behind his desk and rolled up the sleeve on the left-hand side of his robes. The bright mark of the wolf in front of the full moon glowed back up at him. Three stars, one red, one green and one black staring back up at him when he did so.

"James, Lily-Flower, Sirius…"

"You shouldn't make yourself suffer for this."

"I know I shouldn't," Remus said without even looking up from the tattoo.

"I think you're forgetting something, Moony."

Remus looked up, the tears streaming down his face before he could stop them from falling, "Wh..What am I forgetting, exactly, Nicholas?"

" _All members of a soul-bond must be killed at once for an unnatural death to become permanent."_

End Chapter.

I do apologize for the short length, but this was a part 2 to the previous chapter that I never got a chance to finish until now. I've encountered a slight change of plans and decided to tie together the stories 'Links of Magic' and 'Welcome To The World'.

This means that the latter is going to be undergoing a few changes, as I will be warning on the next chapter then I'm going to edit the first few chapters to fit in with this as well.

So, Shameless advertising plugs

RBWY Fanfic:

The Clash of Electric Blue Storms: Battle of Brothers.

Story that ties into Links of Magic:

Welcome To The World.


	15. Moving Forward

**DON'T OWN HARRY POTTER OR ANYTHING ASSOCIATED.**

Chapter Fifteen: Moving Forward

 _"All members of a soul-bond must be killed for it to remain permanent."_

"What are you talking about?"

"Surely you must know," Nicholas slipped his hands into a folded position over his chest, the man's back easily leaning against the nearby wall, "You must feel it in your bones. The ones you seek still live."

"How can I be sure?"

"The mark on your upper shoulder, has it faded?"

Remus' hand clenched against the polished wooden surface of his desk, dark eyes narrowing somewhat, "How did you know about that?"

"I know more than I should perhaps," Nicholas maintained his comfortable position against the wall with his arms folded. The man's eyes had even been closed and he kept them that way. His posture tensed a little upon the soft growl that left the other man's lips, but he didn't comment at first, instead focusing on something else entirely.

Remus pushed himself up and allowed his gaze to sweep over the entirety of his office, momentary pausing to look directly in the eye of the Grindylow concealed within the tank on the far left-hand wall, "Why are you telling me this?"

"Because I don't trust Albus as far as I can throw him," Nicholas said in a brutally honest sort of way, "he may be a powerful figure within this school, but Albus has made too many mistakes that he needs to work through. I tell him what he needs to know and nothing more than that." The elderly man edged his body off the wall and approached the younger's desk. His deep eyes filled with an intensity that was rarely present.

"They're alive Remus, I know this because I have helped them to remain hidden for this long. Unfortunately I was too late to help Sirius. I do intend to make that up to all of you."

"So, what do we do now?"

"Until Dumbledore has regained my trust, I must ask that you do not reveal the nature of this situation to him. I do not have a clear vision of his motives and I don't like that. Whenever I've not been knowledgeable of his motives, it's ultimately led to disaster."

"Are you trying to discredit the headmaster, Nicholas?"

"Not at all, Remus. I'm telling it how it is. I need to be sure that you're alert at least, what you choose to do with that information is entirely on you, I do suggest that you make the wiser decision of the two however."

"Thank you for bringing this to my attention, do you know where they are?"

"As I said, I do, but for now we must allow them to remain hidden."

"The longer we do the more difficult the reveal will become, Harry won't take being lied to this long very well."

"I know he won't Remus, but this is for the right reasons, we have to pick our moment until we can absolutely sure that Albus won't ruin it. I know you're desperate to see them again, believe me I do. The time I went without Perenelle when we were in our earlier days was awful. Please, you must be patient with me for just a short while longer."

"Very well, if you believe it absolutely necessary…for the protection of my family, I will agree to this."

"I knew I could on you, Remus."

"Don't make that trust misplaced, Nicholas. I don't like going against the headmaster like this, even if what you said is true."

His eyes were full of both anger and hurt, for Nicholas to think he knows best and hide the location of two of the three most important people in Remus' life for so long was an atrocity he wasn't sure he was going to be able to handle. He did force himself to hold back for now, he knew that Dumbledore wasn't to be trusted. His inner wolf had told him that much years ago.

Remus had elected to be careful at the time, knowing that if he moved out of turn he could've pushed Dumbledore into a situation where he was doing more than just making stupid mistakes. He'd even tried manipulating the four of them whilst at Hogwarts and now he'd passed on to doing it to James and Lily's son.

"Something has to be done."

"I know, for now however it is best that I continue pretending that I wish for Albus to redeem himself. While it is my hope that he does I see no evidence of it more than done out of necessity because I am around. There is another reason I've contacted you today however."

"Yes, what is it?"

Remus' facial expression shifted slightly, he'd not even anticipated the first part of their conversation and now he was supposedly going to have to deal with even more surprises. It was hardly ideal, but considering the circumstances he was more than willing to go along with it. His pale digits closed around the top of the leather chair standing to the front of him and his deep, murky brown eyes were pointed in the direction of the other professor's.

"I believe that the cure for your Lycanthropy doesn't lie in potions, but it may lie in my natural art of Alchemy, I've been looking into it recently and while it won't be a one hundred percent fix, it might be the closest that any person has gotten to uncovering a cure."

Remus' eyes widened and his jaw dropped quickly afterwards, " _A Cure more reliable than wolfsbane!? How is that possible!?_ "

"By replacing the unelected transformation with an elected one. I can use my abilities to replace the werewolf with an ordinary direwolf that will act as an animagus form for yourself. I do not wish to get your hopes up, Professor Lupin I just want you to know that it is being worked on, no matter how small of a scale it's on."

"I appreciate that Professor Flamel."

 _ **End Chapter**_

 _ **Sorry for that one being so short guys, I've got another chapter part way done, but I wanted to get this little interlude out of the way first as I felt it was unnecessary for the chapter itself, but necessary information for the story as a whole. Anyone who wants to find out more about the things referenced in this story should check out another of my fics, "Welcome To The World." Which I am writing as I'm writing this as well and is The Marauders-Era Version of the Links of Magic AU.**_

 _ **On another note, I've also come up with an idea for a Harry x Ginny x Susan story and would appreciate some feedback/collaboration stuff on how you guys might like it to play out. I haven't decided whether to put it as a soul bond or marriage contract yet so some input on that would be greatly appreciated as well. If you have any ideas regarding this feel free to send me a PM. :)**_

 _ **Update Schedule:**_

 _ **\- Welcome To The World (Bout Quarter Way into writing)**_

 _ **\- A Different sort of Light (Almost finished with the next update.)**_

 _ **\- Contracts of Victory (To be started within the next day or so).**_

 _ **\- The Fall of The Caelin (To be started within the next day or so)**_


	16. Announcement - Discontinued

ANNOUNCEMENT.

Hello fans of Harry Potter and the links of magic. It has come to my attention that this story is nowhere as good as I'd like it to be. Henceforth this story will be called in as abandoned. Fret not my lovely readers. I will be re-writing this fanfiction under a new guise.

Harry Potter and The Link of Magic.

This will still follow Harry's adventures in Marriage Contracts but it will only be with Daphne, Astoria and Tracey without adding any others. Three betrothed is enough for one story and I don't wish to add too much. It's making things too difficult to develop them as I want to.

I'll also be putting out two new stories with another set of marriage contracts as well. My update times are going to be more consistent with all my stories that I plan on continuing from now on and the chapters will be longer.

I'm sorry to those who wanted more from this story but I just don't have the direction for it in my head anymore and I feel it's best for me to refine it before trying again in a more settled way without adding random betrothed just to try and make things exciting when it's really just making us all roll our eyes at the same time.

The two new contract stories will be

Harry and His Red-Heads (HarryxGinnyxSusan)

Things just got a hell of a lot more complicated (HarryxSusan BonesxAmelia Bones)

Once again, thank you.


End file.
